A New Species
by UltraRae78
Summary: For hundreds of years,Ulramen have fought and learned about different alien species across the galaxy. They thought that there were no more surprises,but they soon discover that they are terribly wrong. They find something shocking and unexpected!Is what(or who) they find a peaceful friend or an enemy that will threaten their very existence!Read and find out! Please review.
1. Chapter 1

It was a peaceful day in the Land of light. It was also the last day of school for all the ultra children before they went on their break. Taro, wanted to be the one to teach their class today, knowing that he wouldn't see most again for two whole months. He really enjoyed his job, he loved being able to pass on knowledge to others.

Once, Taro approached his waiting class, he looked them all over carefully. He smiled to himself when he saw that everyone of his students had attended that day, since it was their last day. It pleased him greatly to know that none of them had lost any interest in their training and that they actually found it exciting. Ever since he became a teacher, Taro never felt a single dull moment and he always felt proud to have all of these children look up to with great respect.

As the class waited patiently for Taro to begin, Taro took a step forward and began to speak.

"Students, seeing that this is your last day here, I wish to have you all review what you have learned these past few months. We will be starting with the storium ray. Does anyone wish to volunteer to go first?" Taro said looking over the class and seeing a young girl raise her hand in the back. "Yes? Would you like to go first, Lexia?"

"Yes, master Taro."

"Fine, then. come on up," said Taro, gesturing with his hand for her to approach the front of the class.

After the little ultragirl, almost perfectly demonstrated the storium ray, Taro had every other student do the same. He was surprised at how much they had improved at it, since he taught it to them. Once, all their lessons were complete and each of them passed with flying colors, Taro dismissed them proudly. Taro, watched as their parents came to pick them up. It was mostly mothers, but a few of their fathers came along too. And just as Taro saw a young couple walk away with each of them holding on to their little boys hands, he suddenly frowned. At first he didn't know why he was suddenly feeling depressed, while watching couples leave with their children. But, then he realized that it was probably because he thought that he would never be able to have what they have…a family. I mean, sure, he has a wonderful father and mother, a step brother, and all the other ultrabrothers are sort of like his real brothers. But, he knew that it would never be the same has having children of his own and obviously he couldn't have children, since he was not married as yet.

Every once in a while he would feel this way, but then he would just try to convince himself that there may still be hope. He's not exactly "over the hill" yet. He never wanted to tell anyone, not even his parents, about how much he truly wanted a family of his own. He just felt that it was too embarrassing to discuss.

After, Taro fully got over his temporary depression, he suddenly remembered that he was due at a meeting at space headquarters. Once he hurried over to headquarters, he entered the conference room. After he stood alongside all the other Ultrabrothers, commander Zoffy, who was in charge of the meeting, began to speak.

"As you all know we have been searching threw the galaxy for new undiscovered territories, ones which we may study and learn from," seeing everyone give a nod, Zoffy continues. "Well, recently, an ultra on patrol discovered something very unusual in a northern galaxy."

"What was it?," asked Ultraman, who was standing beside Taro.

"He miraculously, discovered a whole planetary system, which until this point has been completely unheard of by the Ultra race."

Everyone looked to each other in surprise at the news. Taro, takes a step forward before asking, "How is it, that a whole planet could possibly be overlooked by us for so long, without even being detected?"

"Apparently, they used some sort of cloaking devise, that completely hid it from view ,"Zoffy explained.

"They?" asked Ultraseven.

"Yes. For something as ingenious as this, the planet must be inhabited by some sort of intelegant life. And it's up to us to find out who, or what, they are, and discover whether their peaceful or not. We have to send at least two us for this specific mission. Any volunteers?"

"I'll go," said Ace, stepping forward.

"Me too," said Taro.

"Remember, we have no idea what will await you when you get there, so use extra precaution." said Zoffy, before giving them the new coordinates.

Ace and Taro, then left immediately for their new mission. Taro, wished that he could have spoken with his parents about the whole thing first, but he knew that Zoffy would fill them in on everything. He felt that he should always talk to his parents first before going on any mission in case it was ever his last and it would feel awful if he never even got to say goodbye first, if anything did happen. The coordinates that they were given were over a million light years away from M78, but likely they were able to make a portal to transport them directly there, so that they didn't have to waste any time.

Once, they supposedly arrived at the proper location, Taro and Ace couldn't determine were the planet was, since all they could see was dark empty space. Knowing that the planet was completely invisible, Taro wondered how the Ultra on patrol happen to come across it. As Taro was cruising around the area, seeing if he could accidently stumble upon it, he suddenly heard Ace call out him. Taro, then turned around, but was surprised to find Ace nowhere in sight. Just as he was about to call out for his brother, Taro was completely bewildered to suddenly see Ace come into sight out of nowhere, like he was coming threw an invisible portal.

"Taro, I found it!" Ace shouted as he went through the invisible force field again, with Taro quickly following.

Taro, looked on in amazement, as he could now see a whole new undiscovered planet. From a distance it seemed to have a bright purple glow to it. Taro, was just about to fly closer when Ace grabbed his upper arm for a quick moment. " Remember, we must approach with caution."

"Right."

With that they both began to fly down to planet's surface, trying to prepare themselves for anything unexpected that may occur.

Meanwhile, deep down on the planet surface, a hidden life form of some kind, looked on in fury, as the two Ultramen approached, knowing that they have finally been discovered.


	2. Chapter 2

Ace and Taro, entered into the planet's atmosphere and landed right on the surface. They both gazed up and noticed that the whole sky was completely purple. They then moved their gaze to the planet's surface and were amazed at it's unique appearance. The ground had this blue coral color to it, and the rocks and boulders were bright red, so were the far off mountains that they could see. As they slowly began looking around, not leaving each other's side, they noticed that there wasn't much vegetation, except that is for a few thorny looking shrubs. When Taro took a closer look, he noticed these odd looking flowers growing on then. They were purple with tiny yellow colored dots on them that you could barely see. He was about to touch it when Ace provoked him not to.

"Taro, we must not touch any of the plants, yet. They could be poisonous for all we know."

"Your, right," said Taro, retracting his hand from the unknown plant.

As they further explored, they came to a forest area, with these very tall trees. They had rather thin white trunks and jaggedy purple leaves. The fruit that grew on them were similar to that of a pear ,only they were pink. Most of the ground was now covered in golden colored grass and it was high enough to reach up to their knees. As they carefully walked threw it, they continued to look for any signs of life, but found none. The whole area seemed uninhabited.

But, it wasn't.

Deep in the forest, there was some new living being, that was hidden so that neither Ace nor Taro could see it. But it could see them. And it wasn't the least bit happy about these trespasser's. It planned to pounce on them as soon as it got the chance ,in order to protect it's home.

Eventually, Ace and taro came to a river. The water itself was clear, but the colorful rocks on the bottom gave it an interested rainbow color. When Ace walked a few feet down the river, Taro stayed behind for a moment. He stood by the edge of the river and kneeled down. He bent over slightly so he could get a better look at the glistening rocks on the bottom. He spotted a blue one that was closest to him and was about to place his hand into the water, when he remembered what Ace said about touching possibly dangerous things. He thought for a moment, but then decided that there couldn't be any harm in a small stone. So once he looked over at Ace and saw that he was looking the other way, he carefully reached down into the water and picked up the attractive smooth blue stone.

He held it in the palm of his hand, examining it for a moment, before bringing over his other hand and was about to touch it when the, thought to be, stone did something unexpected. All of a sudden, the blue object sprouted at least ten small legs and a small round head with three red eyes and two sharp fangs, similar to that of a spiders. Before ,Taro even had a chance to react, the creature made a small jump a bit right into his hand that he was about to touch it with.

"AHHH!,"Taro gave a yell of pain and slight panic, quickly alerting Ace. Taro instinctively stood up and tried franticly to shake the thing off that still had a painful grip on his hand. Ace reached him just as he was finally able to free himself from that things fangs. They both saw it quickly disappear into the river again.

"Taro! What happened? Are you alright? What was that?," Ace anxiously asked, gripping Taros upper arm with both hands.

"That thing…I thought…I thought it was just a rock, but when I picked it up it bit me," said Taro looking at his hand and seeing the bite mark that that thing left, which Taro could tell still stung.

"Are you sure your alright?" said Ace looking at the bite and sounding slightly worried.

"Y-Yeah, I think so," Taro said curling his hand in a fist so that he wouldn't have to keep looking at the bite mark. "It's very small anyway. I think we should just continue our planetary evaluation. So let's get going," Taro began to walk down the river, with Ace following after a slight hesitation. Taro, only tried to make it seem like it was nothing to prevent Ace from worrying and he tried to hide his true feelings as well as he could, because, the truth is he didn't feel alright. In fact, quite the opposite. The second that that thing grabbed onto his hand, he felt it's venom surging threw him, almost like an electrical shock. And when it finally let go he felt slightly nauseas and lightheaded, but that only lasted for a moment, now only the bite itself stung, which was already bad enough.

As Taro walked slightly ahead of his brother Ace, he brought his hand up in front of him, trying to make sure Ace didn't see, and slowly opened it up. He looked at the bite on his palm, which would probably be red by now if his hand wasn't already red, and for a moment he just stared at the two small punctured wounds on his hand. The stinging sensation was beginning to slightly spread and Taro breathed nervously as his whole hand now felt like it was on fire. Taro, quickly brought his hand back down to his side so that Ace wouldn't become suspicious. He tried to ignore the pain, but it wasn't easy, since it seemed to only be increasing.

Once, Ace and Taro came to a more isolated area, which was cornered with large red boulders, they were about to turn back, when Ace suddenly gripped Taros upper arm, causing him to give a slight hiss of pain, but was too low to be noticed by Ace. Taro, looked at him in confusion.

"Do you hear something?" said Ace scanning the area.

"No," was Taros quick answer even though he was uncertain whether he could hear anything or not, all he could think about for that split second was the fierce pain growing in his arm. After pushing his personal needs aside, Taro for the first time tried to see if he really could hear anything or not. For the first few seconds he didn't, but then he suddenly heard something like a twig snap. He quickly looked into the forest, expecting whatever it was to be there. But, after a few more moments of silence, Taro finally turned back to the high red boulders and as he was beginning to bring his head up to the top, something that was up there suddenly jumped down right on top of him, sending him straight to the ground. It happened so fast that all Taro saw was a black blur.


	3. Chapter 3

Whatever that thing was, it moved so fast that Taro hardily saw it coming before it knocked him to the ground. It quickly stood over him and struck him across the face before Taro had time to shield himself.

"Taro!" he heard Ace call just as that thing pounced on him. Ace quickly rushed over in an attempt to pull that thing off him, but was swiftly kicked in the gut before he could even touch it. Ace then backed up and shot a beam at it, being careful not to hit Taro. It was able to avoid it, while moving away from Taro in the process. Taro, tried to stand up as fast as he could, even with the pain in his arm. Ace quickly helped him up and they both looked over at what was attacking them. It was dressed in almost complete black with something around its waist and wore a hard black helmet concealing its entire face. Its body structure was similar to that of a human, except for the size. It wasted no time to plan its next move. It swiftly pulled a weapon out that was attached to its side, which looked like some kind of ninja sword. But, neither of them barely had time to observe it, before the creature charged forward at incredible speed and swung it at each of their heads. Ace and Taro, jumped back just in the nick of time to avoid getting each of their heads cut off, which would have undoubtedly happened.

They each got into their fighting stance, getting ready for the next attack, as the creature quickly ran towards them, doing a jump kick at Aces head and then an immediate side kick to his shoulder knocking the wind out of him for a moment and sending him on his back. Then before Taro knew what happened, it shot him two short quick punches to the face, kicked him in the middle of his chest, pushing him backward a few feet, and was lifting its sword with both hands, planning on finishing him with a single hard strike, when Ace jumped it from behind. Reaching for the sword, Ace toppled the creature to the ground, knocking it out of its hands. As Ace struggled with the creature for a moment, Taro wasted no time in retrieving the sword that had fallen to the ground. Surprisingly, it was actually quite heavy for a ninja sword. Knowing that they wouldn't have any use for it, Taro quickly tossed in some bushes so that the creature wouldn't see where it was.

Upon, seeing Ace being forcefully thrown to the ground, Taro quickly brought his full attention to the alien being. For a split second, it just stood where it was and seemed to eye Taro, looking him up and down. It didn't look tired at all and its energy wasn't even running low. Aces color timer ,on the other hand, was already blinking red. After quickly looking Taro over, it balled its fist in obvious anger, and made a small sound that sounded like a snarl. It immediately charged toward Taro. It was at this split second that Taro realized that the pain in his arm was starting to subside, and just in the nick of time. Just as it was swigging its arm torwards Taros face, Taro quickly blocked it and then threw a hard punch hitting it in the chest. He kneed it in the gut and then grabbing its forearm, successfully threw it to the ground. It did a somersault just as it hit the ground, and charged Taro again. It quickly punched him twice in the chest, and was about to kick him in the stomach when Taro grabbed its foot and tried to push it back, but instead it used Taro as a step and did a back flip on to its feet. When it threw a straight punch at him, Taro moved slightly to the side, avoiding it, he grabbed its wrist and shoulder and kneed it hard in the chest, as it was still bent over. Then with all his mite he threw the creature right into a big boulder with great force, rendering it unconscious.

Taro, began to help up Ace who was on his hands and knees. They cautiously approached the unconscious alien, preparing themselves for another sudden attack. It was lying face down on the ground and didn't show any signs of movement. Taro, also noticed that its helmet was cracked, which must have happened when its head hit the boulder. They both stood still, just looking at it lying there for a moment, before Taro kneeled down beside it and was reaching out to touch its shoulder.

"Careful," warned Ace.

Taro, laid his hand on its shoulder, but there was no response. Wondering if it was even alive, Taro slowly began turning it over on its back. Just as he did so, its cracked helmet slipped right off, finally exposing its face. Taro, completely froze at what he saw. Ace remained motionless as well, being just as shocked as Taro was at the sight.

Laying, there on the ground was a woman! The female sex, of a new undiscovered alien species. Neither, Taro, nor Ace could take their eyes off her. They had never seen anything like her kind before. Her skin was blue, which was slightly darker than the color of the sky on earth. Her long silky hair, fell over her shoulders, it was a bright color of purple with a few strikes of pink in the front. Her ears were pointed, almost like an elf, only hers were smaller and looked nicer. Her lips were bright red and glossy, and she wore dark purple eye makeup that glittered.

Taro, felt like he was in some sort of enchantment as he looked at her, he had truly never seen anything like her before. She had beautiful skin, she had beautiful hair, she had beautiful red lips. SHE was beautiful! As he continued to gaze upon her, his eyes traveled down to her chest, which is when he noticed that she was breathing. She was still alive. This quickly snapped him out of his trance and he finally spoke.

"She's alive."

"It would seem so," was Aces response.

"What do you think we should do?"

"I'm not sure. We've never come across something quite like this before."

"Do…you think we should bring her back to M78?"

Ace starred at Taro for a moment, then began to think whether that would be a good idea or not. After, giving it a few moments of thought, he said to Taro, "We'll take her with us as a temporary prisoner. Maybe we can at least find out why she was so determined to destroy us and learn if there are any more of them as dangerous as this one." Taro, looked up at Ace, giving a nod in agreement, before gluing his eyes back to the female.

"Will you carry her, Taro, since my energy is already low?"

Taro hesitated a moment, but knowing that there was no other option, he carefully lifted the girl in his arms, bridal style. He felt his face go red when he noticed Ace giving a light smirk. Finally they were on their way back to the land of light, and everyone was bound to be surprised at the interesting cargo that they were returning with.


	4. Chapter 4

The strange new alien female, laid motionless on a flat hard table, in a room somewhere inside space headquarters. Commander Zoffy, and the rest of the ultra brothers, heard about Taro and Aces strange new discovering, and immediately came to see it for themselves. They all stood a short distance from around the table and observed the female with curiosity. Zoffy stepped a bit closer than the rest, and looked to Taro and Ace questionably.

"Where did you find this thing?" said Zoffy, gesturing to the creature.

"On the planets surface. It must have been following us, since it suddenly attacked us once we were in a cornered area," said Ace.

"Yes, and it seemed extremely angry with us for no apparent reason. It was definitely trying to kill us," said Taro.

After listening to what they both said, Zoffy crossed his arms and asked," Do you think that there are many more of them? If so, they may rage war on all of us, especially if they think that they are now in danger of being invaded themselves."

"If there are others, they may attack us just out of spite, now that we've taken one of their own," said Ultraman.

"Yeah, it may not even be safe to keep this one here. Who knows what trouble it could cause us," said Seven.

"If it's as vicious as they said, then there's little chance of its kind ever being peaceful with us!" said Jack.

"Silence!" Ultra father spoke in a booming voice, trying to put a stop to all the negative protesting, as he and ultra mother entered the room.

Everyone, turned from the table with the alien to face ultra father and ultra mother. Zoffy stepped forward to speak first.

"Thank you both, for attending this rather "unusual" meeting."

"From what I've heard, Taro and Aces mission in searching for a new planet was a success, correct?," asked ultra father.

"Yes, sir, but there were some unexpected complications," Zoffy said, figuring that they hadn't heard yet.

"As in…?"

"Living on the planet, was an alien life form, which attacked both Ace and Taro. They were able to defeat it and brought its body back to M78 for further study. If it survives it may be able to tell us whether it's the only one left of its kind, or if there's more that could propose a threat to us all."

After ultra father and mother gave a glance to each other, ultra mother asked," Where is this alien now?"

Realizing that all the ultra brothers had concealed the alien from their few, they all quickly stepped aside, while Zoffy started," Its right-" Zoffy stopped immediately as he noticed that the table was now empty! "What?!" Zoffy, shouted in confusion. He saw that all the restraints were now broken off.

"What happened?!" shouted Ultraman.

"She's gone!" said Taro now almost in a panic. Even through all the confusion, Taro suddenly noticed the door on the other side of the room slowly swinging shut as if someone just left out of it. Taro immediately figured it was her escaping. "Over there!" Taro called rushing over to the other entrance, with the others following.

He burst through the door and saw something quickly turn the corner. Without waiting for the others he quickly ran after it. After chasing it threw several hallways, and only hearing it run ahead of him in the distance, he suddenly heard a scuffle take place past the next corner. Taro quickly turned the corner to see the same furious blue female strike some random red and silver ultraman across the face, knocking him back against the wall. She gave him a seemingly effortless kick to the head, knocking him down to the floor on his side. She backed away from him and looked to Taro. He had just gotten into his fighting stance, when she charged him, at almost lightning speed, and side kicked him right in his ribcage. At first he shouted in pain, but it soon turned into anger, as she was about to kick him in the same place again. But, Taro grabbed her leg and slammed her hard into the wall. As she was getting up, Taro grabbed both her shoulders, spun her around and tried to hold her up against the other wall, in an attempt to get her to calm down. One which quickly failed, when she put one foot on the center of his chest, pushing him back away from her. This caused Taro to hit his back up against the opposite wall. Before Taro had a chance to move she quickly came forward and grabbed his neck with one hand and pulled out a sharp knife with the other. She held the knife up and was about to cut his throat, when something very fast and sharp came shooting at her, knocking the knife right out of her gloved hand, causing her to let out this weird painful shriek, while quickly backing away from Taro.

Taro turned to see seven catching his eye slugger and placing it back on his head."Are you okay Taro?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

All the other ultra brothers quickly came beside Seven. Taros parents soon joined them, wanting to find out exactly what was going on.

"Seize her!" Zoffy ordered, then Ultraman and Jack grabbed her before she could make another narrow escape.

After seeing what this female did to the injured ultraman in the hall, who ultra mother quickly helped up and healed, ultra father decided that extra precaution should be taken to keep this creature contained.

As Taro, for some reason, stepped closer to the girl, Jack suddenly lost his grip on her arm and she suddenly raised her hand and clawed Taro right across the face. This made him shout, since her nails were very sharp ,while bringing a hand to his face. "Taro!" ultra mother called frantically, while rushing to her son's side.

"Take her to solitary confinement , until I say otherwise!," ultra father ordered, obviously now angry.

"Yes, ultra father," replied both ultraman and Jack, before dragging away the struggling female. Zoffy then placed a pair of protective cuffs on her, that may prevent any further incidences, until they could get her in a cell.

Taro saw her look back just as they were taking her away, and to his surprise, the only one who she seemed to see was him. She ignored everyone else and kept her eyes focused on him for some reason. Taro, couldn't help but stare back. It was only at this time that Taro first realized the color of her eyes. They were bright icy blue. As Taro looked into her eyes he suddenly felt this strange spark light up inside him, which he couldn't explain.


	5. Chapter 5

Over the last couple of days, Taro wasn't able to concentrate on anything. Anything other, except the strange new arrival. She had been put in complete solitary confinement, until Ultra father said otherwise. That day Ultra father was going to have her brought in for questioning, but only himself, ultra mother, and Zoffy were to be present. Taro found this somewhat disappointing, and he didn't really know why, but he just had this strange urge to see her again. Perhaps it was just the pure excitement of learning about something so unique and different has this. At least he hoped that's all it was.

With the children's school being out, Taro didn't really know what to do with himself. Teaching the children and other young adult ultras was really all he ever did on a daily bases, except when he was assigned to a mission every once in a while. He didn't feel like taking a vacation, even though, he had been feeling unusually tired lately ever since he and Ace returned from their mission. He never did like taking it easy, it always made him feel like he wasn't pulling his weight at work. So he finally decided to report to space headquarters to see if they had any work for him.

Once he arrived he was greeted by seven and commander Zoffy. Zoffy seemed to be upset and frustrated about something. Taro wondered if it could have anything to do with the girl. He wanted to ask him, but being afraid of further upsetting him he decided not to. After they went through the duty rosters, Zoffy left to speak with ultra father about something, but didn't say what. Once Taro and Seven were alone, Taro decided to ask Seven whether he knew what was going on or not.

"Do you know what's the matter with Zoffy? Something seemed to be bothering him."

After giving a long sigh, which indicated that he did know, Seven responded," Yeah, it's that girl you brought here. Well, if you could even call her that! I think Zoffy and the others would rather refer to her as a monster!"

"Monster? What do mean? Did they already bring her in for questioning?"

"Yes, they did. And I'm sure from what you can gather, it didn't go well."

"What happened?" Taro asked, though he wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

"Well, I wasn't actually there, and I'm kind of relieved that I wasn't, but from what Zoffy told me, that thing that you brought back with you is an unreasonable, vicious barbarian." Taro just stood speechless for a moment, but didn't have to speak, since Seven continued. " She did everything possible to show complete disrespect towards ultra father except spitting. In fact, I think she may have done that to. He barely got a chance to ask her anything about her back round, let alone get any useful answers. The only thing that came out of her mouth was a bunch of curses in her own language. Ultra father has already decided that that creature cannot be reasoned with and refuses to speak with her again just to be insulted."

After getting over the shock of what his father had to go through, Taro finally spoke," If all that you say is true…then frankly, I don't blame him in the least." When Seven didn't say anything more Taro asked, "Do you know what their going to do now?"

"I don't know what they can do, since they can't get her to tell them anything."

After thinking a moment on what they should do, Taro suddenly looked at Seven and said, "Maybe I should try?"

"What?"

"Try to get her to talk to me."

"If she wouldn't even speak to ultra father, what makes you think she'll listen to you?" Seven asked giving him a skeptical look.

"From what you said happened this morning, I probably couldn't do any worse!"

After crossing his arms and giving it some deep thought, Seven finally decided that there couldn't be any harm in it, "Okay then, what have we got to lose anyway."

"Fine. When should I go see her?"Said Taro with a happier voice.

"First I need to get permission from ultra father and mother and see what they think."

Seven told Taro that he would let him know tomorrow what they said. At first ultra father was very hesitant to let his son commune with such a disrespectful subspecies, but knowing that he wouldn't be in any physical danger he finally decided to let him try. But only if Seven went with him. The next day Seven and Taro went over to the prison, which was located near the space headquarters. They told the guard why they were there and he immediately unlocked the girls prison door. Since it was solitary confinement the door was thick and heavy with a small glass window that you could barely see through.

Taro began pushing the door open and from what he could see the room wasn't well lighted. Before he even had the door half way opened, though, he was slightly startled when something made of glass was suddenly thrown against the door smashing it. He quickly opened the door the rest of the way, guarding his face just in case if something else was thrown at them. They both stepped into the small dimly lit room to see a form sitting in a dark corner on the floor. She had a chain attached to her wrist which was connected to the smooth metal wall. Sneering at the two ultras that entered the room, she quickly stood up pressing her back against the wall.

Taro slowing began walking over to her when she started hissing at him trying to warn him off. It was at this time that Taro noticed that her teeth were pointed and sharp. When she saw that he was still coming closer, she snapped, "What do you want?!" This made Taro stop and while trying to look confident said, "What is your name?" Taro thought this was a good beginning question.

At first she said nothing and kept giving him nasty looks. She kept her eyes focused on Taro and didn't even seem to notice Seven standing by the door. After giving a slight shrug she asked, " What's it to you?!"

"It would just make it easier if I knew what to call you, since "creature" is getting old", said Taro crossing his arms.

She narrowed her eyes at him, probably being slightly offended by that comment, but then finally answered, "Xena."


	6. Chapter 6

"Xena."

Pleased that he was able to get her to answer a simple question, Taro continued, "What is the name of your home planet?"

She stiffened at the question, before answering, "Twiloh" the scowl never leaving her face.

"So…you would be called, a twilohite then?"

"Brilliant observation…"She mumbled sarcastically while looking away.

After giving her a moment, Taro decided that he didn't want to press his luck by asking to many questions. But, since she seemed to be answering to him for some reason, he wanted to take advantege of it. "Are there many more of you?"

"I don't have to answer to you!," She shouted back while pulling at her chain, like she wanted to tare him apart this very second. "And if you think you can get away with kidnapping me, your dead wrong! My people have already suffered far too long, because of your kind! You think your heroes ,but your the monsters!"

Taro, clenched his fists, since what she said certainly stung. It made him wonder whether the Ultras did have a history with her people before. True, he had actually kidnapped her from her home, but it was only because of her fierce actions towards them. Then again, she could have seen them as a threat to her world, which to her would make them seem like the villains. As Taro thought about this possibility, his anger seemed to disapeer. He was actually beginning to almost feel sorry for this girl, but that was something he thought it was best to keep to himself, since he was sure that everyone else would think it was ludicrous.

Without giving the girl a second look, Taro walked over to seven, and in a mild tone said, "Let's go." They both left the girl in complete silence with her just staring at the door as they closed it. She sunk down to the floor and again sat in the dark corner while hugging her knees to her chest. Her look of anger that seemed to be plastered to her face was changed to a look of sadness. She hung her head down with her beautiful purple hair hanging in front of her face. While, remaining in this position, she lightly began to sob.

Taro, didn't say much the rest of the day and just went home to rest for awhile. Not because he wanted to, but Seven told him to since he didn't think he looked well. Taro said he was fine and that he was just a little tired, but he decided not to argue and did what he was told. Seven reported to commander Zoffy, all that happened with Taro and the girl. Zoffy was shocked that he got even has much as her name. He was struck as to how Taro got her to talk when they couldn't get her to say a single understandable word.

When Taro got to his quarters he collapsed on to his bed. He was never this tired from doing nothing, so he thought it was very strange. He began rubbing his forehead , since he now had a headache. After doing so for about five minutes, he began moving his hand away, but stopped when he noticed a bite mark on the palm of his hand that he remembered getting on the planet Twiloh. It hadn't healed at all, and looked like he could have gotten it seconds ago. This freaked Taro out a little, but he still just tried to convince himself that it was nothing to worry about. He brought his hand back down to his side and tried not to think about it. After a few more minutes his headache seemed to stop, which made it much easier for him to relax. He closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.

Six hours had past and night was beginning to fall. Taro, awoke with a fright. He took several deep breaths as if gasping for air. Maybe it was something he was dreaming about, if so he couldn't remember what it was. He felt his whole body shivering like he was coming down with a fever, or something. He was also sweating which seemed to confirm it. He had never experienced a fever in his ultra form before, so this proved something was very wrong with him. He tried lifting his arms, but they felt pinned to his sides. He felt confused and delusional. It was at this time that he began feeling nauseous, which is when it hit him. When he was bitten by that bug, for the first few seconds after he felt almost the same way as he does now, only the symptoms were a lot less extreme and didn't last long. Taro looked to his side at the hand that had been bitten and winced in pain as he squeezed in into a fist.

Taro was now beginning to worry whether that bugs bite could be fatal or not. And if so, is there an antidote? If there is, how could he possibly get it before it's too late? How is it possible to find a cure for something if we don't even know what it was that caused the problem to begin with.

Taro was beginning to drift off to sleep again when he suddenly thought of something that could be answer, "Xena!"

Deferent location far from the Land of Light: Name, Twiloh.

Not on the planet's surface, but deep under it (underground) a slender dark form dressed in black was running quickly through a dark underground tunnel. The crudely built tunnel was very large and made of stone. It was almost completely dark, except for a growing light which was at the end of the tunnel. The being in black rushed out of the tunnels exit and into a rural civilization completely underground. Hundreds of blue skinned people of all ages, male and female, go about their daily lives almost as if they were human. Children play through the streets, mothers walk with their infants strapped onto their backs like the Indians used to and strongly built males were at the end of the underground city digging with picks and shovels, trying to expand the area.

The one dressed in black runs into a large building, the largest of them all actually, and pushes open two big doors, which reveals a thrown like chair at the end of the very large room. Sitting on the thrown plated with gold, was middle aged female. Her purple hair was in a tight bun and she wore a large gold tiara with a glittery silver lining. She wore a long tight white dress and long silky white sleeves that almost touched the floor. She had a green emerald necklace, emerald earrings and even an emerald ring. She had dark black eye makeup and lips almost as red as blood. The black clothed soldier approaches the monarch and gets down on one knee in a respectful bow.

"Speak," is all the woman says.

"Your majesty I believe we have had intruders."

"That is impossible, our cloaking devise should protect us from such things!"

"True your majesty, but one of our soldiers was patrolling the surface and she has not returned since. I have found evidence of a scuffle taking place and I have even found her sword hidden in some bushes, " he holds out the sword to show her, before he continues. "Whatever it was they must have taken her prisoner, because there was no trace of her remains. With your permission empress Othsena, I would like to perform a search along with several other soldiers. We should be able to track the location of the last ones to leave the atmosphere."

"Granted."


	7. Chapter 7

When Taro awoke the next morning, the pain from his hand once again left him. He still felt weak though and had a rather hard time standing up. But once he did his strength returned, at least most of it. Taro didn't want to tell his parents about last night, especially since they already have enough to worry about as it is. If he was terribly sick, there probably isn't anything that they could do anyway.

Taro just sat on the edge of his bed and rubbed his face from stress, as he thought about what he should do. He couldn't go to any of his brothers for help, since they would certainly tell his parents about it. But he knew he had to go to someone for help before he gets any worse and then nothing may be able to help him. As Taro again starred at his bitten hand, which had now grown numb, he finally decided on the hard( and possibly only solution )on what to do. He would have to go to Xena for help.

It wasn't that he wanted to, because he certainly didn't, especially after that last visit with the furious alien. But Taro figured that he really didn't have any other choice, since she's obviously the only one on planet Ultra with any knowledge of her planets dangerous environment. And it's not likely that she would tell anyone else about his visit. She might just even know a cure for whatever it is that he's got. But, even if she did, why would she tell him? It was clear to see that she hates his guts and would probably prefer it if he died a long painful death. But knowing that she was his only real chance, Taro decided to risk it anyway, and was going to go see her. Perhaps, he could even exchange her freedom, for some lifesaving information. Though he probably wouldn't get her hopes up, until he was sure whether he could swing that with his parents or not, seeing that their very strict about that sort of thing and may not agree to it.

As soon as he had the nerve to, he went to the prison. The guard on duty was different then last time and looked younger. Taro hoped that he would be able to persuade him to let him in to see the prisoner without an actual order from ultra father, or Zoffy. Upon seeing Taro the guard stood at attention and addressed him.

"Master, Taro. What can I do for you, sir?"

"I would like to see the prisoner in solitary, if that's alright?" Taro tried to sound casual so the guard wouldn't become suspicious.

The guard paused for a moment, probably wondering why anybody in their right mind would want to, but before he could asked him, Taro quickly spoke again, "It's very important," Taros voice was now serious.

Deciding not to question his authority, the guard quickly assisted him, along with a, "Yes, sir!" He unlocked the door for Taro and stepped back as if trying to stay out of throwing range once the door was opened.

Taro, slowly opened the door, being ready for something to hit him. Nothing did. He walked in all the way and closed the door behind him so that the guard wouldn't hear anything. This made the room pretty dark, but he would just have to bare with it. Once, he focused his eyes on the dark he could see much more clearly. Without looking around first he walked over to the same section of the room as last time, knowing that she would still be there.

He stood about a yard away from the dark figure curled up in the corner. He waited a moment for her to make a move, but she didn't. She obviously knew that he was there, but just refused to acknowledge him. Taro, waited a moment longer before he stepped closer and began to reach down to touch her arm to see if he could get a reaction. He got more of a reaction than he bargained for, when one of her hands instantly shot up and grabbed his hand that was nearing her. This startled Taro and he tried to back away, but couldn't immediately since she was still clutching to him, digging her nails into his wrist. Taro grunted, but just stood still waiting for her to let go on her own.

She had grabbed him without even looking up and continued not to for a few seconds longer. When he made no further attempt to get away, she took a deep breath before saying in almost a whisper, "Leave..me..alone."

She instantly let go of him after that and Taro quickly backed away. He stood there stunned for a moment before he balled his fists and practically shouted at her, " What's your problem?!"

That immediately got her attention and she glared up at him with the same look of fury that she had had previously. When she looked like she was about to say something sharp out of spite, the expression of anger suddenly fell from her face and was replaced by a blank one. Her eyes left Taro and dully went to the ground. "Think whatever you want about me…see if I care," she said in a voice that almost sounded depressed.

Taro was surprised and confused by the sudden change in her attitude, and he wasn't sure how to respond to it. He was beginning to regret what he had just said. He wasn't being too sympathetic, after all she had a right to be upset from being taken from her home and brought here, to some strange foreign place. Maybe, if he wants to get through to her, he should stop treating her like a prisoner and start treating her like a person.

"Xena?"

She looked up at him from hearing him say her name, and this was probably the first time she looked at him with something other than anger plastered on her face. But, the look quickly vanished as she turned her away. Seeing her reaction from him using her name, Taro decided that he would use it from now on.

"Xena, I don't know what you have against us, but whatever it is, I want you to know that we don't want to be your rivals," Taro suddenly felt dumb for saying that, since it was obvious what she had against them. They did kidnap her and put her in prison, after all.

She scoffed, but said nothing. Deciding that he had to make her feel more comfortable, Taro pulled up a chair that was by a table. He set it about a yard from her and sat down. She starred at his act, but seemed indifferent to it, not really caring. After a moment of silence and realizing that he apparently wasn't going anywhere she turned herself to face him.

"What do you want from me?!"

"I want answers."

"About what!?"

"You!"


	8. Chapter 8

She starred for a moment, before saying in a smug voice, "What makes me so interesting?"

Not sure where to begin, he gives a stupid answer, "You just are."

She rolls her eyes as she looks away and asked, "What exactly do you want to know?"

Surprised by her sudden cooperation, Taro quickly organized his thoughts and started to ask her questions about her and her species. A few he thought were a bit too personal and private, but she answered them without hesitation. She told him how the female of her species is actually physically stronger than the male, though they don't look it. This Taro didn't doubt for a second, seeing how she almost tore him apart before. They can see perfectly in the dark, almost like a bat. They prefer a cold climate around 20-30 degrees, though they can still survive in warmer temperatures. Their diet consists mainly of vegetation and she's cold blooded, meaning she's not a mammal, but perhaps some sort of reptile.

After she told him pretty much everything he would ever want to know about her, she sat against the wall and waited patiently. After a moment of just staring at each other, she finally said, "Well?"

"Well, what, "Taro asked confused.

"Well, now that I've answered all of your nosy questions, why don't you leave me alone!?" She snapped. "What other possible use could you, an "Ultraman", have with a "monster" like me!?"

Taro, knew that she would never help him, unless he could get her to stop hating him and start trusting him, if that was even possible. He has to prove to her that he's not what she thinks he is, which is probably a self centered bastard! His life could possibly depend on it.

"Your not a monster…"She gave him a skeptical look, as he continued, "…your a girl. People only said that, because they don't really understand you, but maybe they could if you would only give them the chance, Xena."

She starred at him for what seemed like forever with an expression of wonder, like something deep down inside of her was actually touched by what he just said. Taro took this moment to study her face. Ever since, he saw her face he felt like there was something special about her, and now he felt that way more than ever as he starred into her blue eyes, which now seemed to soften. But, as soon as that feeling came, it was gone again as she turned away towards the wall of her cell.

Just as Taro thought he was finally getting somewhere, she shuts him out again. Taro breathed a long sigh as he stood up from his chair and placed it back by the table. He walked to the door and had his hand on the door knob, as he turned his head back towards her. "I'd like to talk with you again tomorrow, if that's alright with you?"Taro asked, hoping that by asking her, she would think of him as being more considerate, instead of pushy. When she didn't answer Taro just left, closing the door behind him. He went straight home, since he was growing tired again.

Another location: Deep in space:

"Captain Macunga!" shouted a soilder dressed in black, on some sort of flying glider, hovering in space.

He was joined by several others on similar devices, one of which wore a red and silver colored armband which indicated his rank. He spoke first to the soilder, "What is it, officer Kenta?" he spoke with a deep voice.

"I think I found the trail which the invaders left with my tracking device, but it goes over a million light years away. It will take us days to get there, and when we do, we have no idea how powerful the enemy is. They could destroy us all! What should we do sir?"

"We will send one of us ahead to locate them. We will have our army ready and waiting. Once, our spy evaluates them, they will send us a signal as to whether they think it's suicide, or not. If not, we will charge in and attack! Clear?"

"Yes, sir!," they all answered.

Back in Xena's cell:

"I know their coming for me," she spoke aloud to herself.


	9. Chapter 9

Three days have passed, and Taro has come to see Xena everyday. He would continue to ask her about herself, and for reasons unknown to her, she held nothing back from him. At first, she found his continual visits very annoying and wished he would just leave her alone. But, once she got used to him, she found that she didn't really mind all that much. She was actually beginning to enjoy the company. After all, it was very boring sitting in that small gloomy room, all day and night, alone. If she was going to stay here, for who knows how long, she might as well get to know someone. And since, she disliked everyone, it made no difference to her whether it was the nosey Ultra with the horns, or not. She figured, she might as well get used to him. She still couldn't figure out why, out of all the ultras, Taro was the only one who came to interrogate her.

Taro was on his way to see Xena again, when he suddenly felt another attack coming on. He stopped in the hallway and leaned one hand against the wall to support himself. He took a few deep breaths, and before he knew it the pain left him. He couldn't go on like this. He continued to get weaker everyday. In fact, he had become so inactive that he didn't even come in to work for the last few days. He tried to avoid his parents as much as he could, since they would definitely see that something was wrong write away. It wasn't easy, but somehow he managed it.

He could tell by the way he felt that he didn't have much time left. Soon he wasn't going to be able to hide it any longer. He needed help, and he needed it now. And if anybody could help him, it was Xena. Taro, wasn't sure if she trusted him yet, though he would understand if she didn't, but he knew he had to try. Taro knew that he wanted to try to be her friend, but over the last couple of visits, she seemed to become a little more comfortable around him. She didn't shout at him anymore, which he found very relieving, and when Taro looked into her eyes, they sparkled in such a way that it made him feel like she was actually beginning to like him. Although, the stern look she constantly gave him told a different story.

Either way, Taro knew his feelings toward her had changed dramatically. Or maybe he had had them all along, and he just never realized it. But whatever the case, he knew that what he felt for her was definitely more than friendship, though he kept trying to deny it. But, right now he had to stay focused and finally ask her for her help.

In Space, very close to the Land of Light:

A young male Twilohite soldier, on a flying glider devise, cautiously approaches the planet of light. He's momentarily stunned by the magnificent planet, undoubtedly never seeing anything like it before.

As he enters the atmosphere, he presses a bottom on his glider, which is a miniature cloaking devise. Knowing that he is now concealed from few, he ventures slowing down to the planet, where he sees a whole civilization inhabited by strange looking beings of light. While scanning the surface he quickly notices the tallest building on the planet. A large tower with an extremely powerful bright light at the top. He fly's closer to it, being careful not to crash into any ultras who were flying by, who he knew couldn't see him.

Once he was close enough, he took out a small flat machine from his belt, and turning it towards the tower, it gives of this strange humming sound as it invisibly scans it. The machine then comes up with a reading on it's screen. The soldiers eyes widen as he reads the result. He gives the tower one last look before he quickly takes off into space. Once far enough away from the planet he turns of his cloaking devise, and with a different devise on his wrist, he presses a bottom that brings up this miniature satellite disk. After a moment it begins to send communication signals threw space, and all the way back to where there's a waiting army.

In his communication waves, he tells them that the main source of the enemies power is in the form of light and they can't survive without it. So, if they destroy the light, they destroy the enemy.

Back on the Land of Light:

Xena, waited patiently for Taro to come. He didn't say he was coming, but he didn't need too, since it seemed like the regular thing now. Even the guard got so used to Taro coming to the prison that he didn't even asked why anymore. He would just open the cell door, without so much as a word.

As, Xena waited, she suddenly realized she was humming to herself. This surprised her, and she immediately stopped. She couldn't remember humming a day in her life, and now all of a sudden she was doing it without even thinking. "What is wrong with me!?" she thought to herself.

She was trained all her life to practically be a lethal weapon and had little time for anything else. Of course, that's the way she preferred it, fearing that anything besides training and fighting would cause her to grow soft and weak. She even avoided making any friends. This, of course, made her life very miserable and lonely. She couldn't remember the last time she felt happy about something, and now all of a sudden, while she's being kept prisoner, for some reason she can't help but feel a spark of happiness deep inside her. This left her very confused. Why in the world, would she feel this way now, of all times? There was absolutely no reason to feel this way. She couldn't think of any other possible solution other than, Taro.

The thought practically scared her! How could Taro make her feel this way, unless, of course…no!, it wasn't possible. Or was it? "Could I possibly be in-!" her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the prison door opening, with light seeping in. As she expected it was Taro, but unlike every other time he had come through that door this time was different. The second she laid eyes on him, she felt her heart leap in her chest. This almost made her gasp, and she came close to placing a hand over chest, but she stopped herself.

Her surprise from her reaction quickly left her, once she saw Taro. He looked completely exhausted. He slouched slightly forward and seemed to struggle to breath. Probably afraid that his legs were going to give out, he grasped the edge of a table before glancing over at Xena. Deep down Xena might have actually felt some concern, if she didn't hate him so much. Or maybe she didn't really hate him all that much.

Without moving from his position, Taro starred straight at the purpled haired female, and with great effort, spoke, "Xena…I need your help."

She paused a moment, then raised an eyebrow in suspicion, before saying, "What could I possibly do to help you?"

After breathing a long sigh and rubbing his forehead, Taro, slowly walked over to her, and to her surprise he kneeled down next to her. Leaning a hand against the cell wall to support himself, he looked at her in such a way, that almost made her feel bad about the way she had always treated him. In a low weak voice, he began to explain the whole thing to her. About the blue rock in the river, about his fever attacks, everything. She sat and listened to every word. Once he was finally finished, he waited for her response to see what she thought about the problem and if she was able to help.

"Taro" this was the first time she ever spoke his name aloud, "I think I know what it was that bit you… and if I'm right, your in real trouble."

Author Note: Sorry, if I took awhile to update this chapter. I have seven sisters, who are constantly tying up the computer, so as you can probably guess, I don't always get many chances to write, but I definitely try. And thank's for all the great reviews!


	10. Chapter 10

Taro, held his breath as he waited for Xena to tell him the truth about his condition. It was obviously something very serious, otherwise she would have told him right away. Seeing how desperate Taro was for an answer, she decided to just tell him and get it over with.

"Taro, what attacked you, is a very dangerous and dreaded creature. As a matter of fact, it's the very reason why my people have lived underground for all these years. It can't survive for very long out of water."

"But…what is it?"

"It's an Adelocosa. It may be only a little bit smaller than your palm, but it's killed more of my people than anything else recorded in history. It only eats small insects, but it will also attack anyone that disturbs it. The Adelocosa's forceful bite is extremely venomous, with the strength to kill a hundred Twilohites. Anyone who was bitten by it, was dead within two weeks. I still remember how terrible it was to watch so many suffer such a slow painful death, and knowing that you couldn't do a thing for them, " Xena said, with a pained look.

"Do-do you mean, th-that there's nothing that can help me?" Taro asked in almost disbelief. Once he saw the look of sorrow spread over her face, he looked down figuring he knew the answer.

"There may be one way."

Hearing that, Taro quickly shot his head up. With a small amount of hope beginning to grow inside of him, he pleaded for her to continue.

"A long time ago there was a scientist who was doing research on the Adelocosa, in hopes of finding a possible cure for it's venom."

"Yes, and…?" Taro asked anxiously.

"Well, after much studying, he thought that he may have found the answer."

"And what was that?"

"The deadly venom, itself."

Giving her a skeptical look, Taro asked, confused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, that the scientist, Barlow Kapritoa, believed that the only thing strong enough to fight against the Adelocosa's bite, is the actual venom. You see the scientist Barlow, felt that if the creatures venom could be abstracted from it, it could then be administered to the victim. The second dose of venom would combine with the first dose, and when the antibodies of both fought for dominance over the body they would extinguish each other."

"Did it work?"

Xena, gave a sigh before answering, " Unfortunately, he never tested his theory. Anyone suffering from the venom already, were afraid that the same venom would only harm them further. I know how ludicrous that must sound, since what harm could it do them if their dying anyway."

After thinking the wild idea over , Taro decided that he was at the point where he would try anything. "I want to try it."

Xena, looked at him like he was crazy or something. "Are you serious!?" Realizing that he was, she continued, "Besides, how on earth do you plan to even get the adelocosa's venom?"

"There's obviously only one way?"

"Which is what?"

"You and me, will have to find a way to get back to Twiloh."

"What! Are you out of your mind!? I'm a prisoner here, remember?"

"Not for long," Taro said with confidence.

For a moment Xena was speechless, but after awhile she was able to utter, "But… why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you do that for me? I mean, I already told you all I know about the cure, which may not even turn out to be the cure at all. What possible reason would you have for bringing me along?"

"I don't know. Maybe there isn't one, other than, because…" he then looks deep into her eyes, "I like you…and I want to be your friend. Furthermore, you deserve your freedom."

Xena, says nothing, being somewhat moved by his statement. It's only now that she realizes how close Taro is. He's only about a foot away from her, and while still on one knee, he inches a bit closer. She is now able to feel his soft breath on her face, and when she was about to object to his being so close, she suddenly noticed her hand instinctively reaching out and gently caressing his upper arm. This positively terrified her, especially since she didn't seem to have any control over her action. Taro, appeared to experience the same type of panic, as he reacted to the touch by looking at her hand on his arm and then staring back at her with a dumbfounded expression. Feeling his cheeks beginning to heat up, Taro turned his face from her, which she found relieving since she felt the same thing happening to her.

After a moment she was finally able to pull her hand away from his arm, before apologizing, "I'm sorry."

This surprised taro, and looking at her again he asked, "For what?" Figuring why, he rubbed the back of his neck before saying, "Oh, it's okay. I'm just not used to being touched like that."

This only made her feel worse, which Taro quickly noticed, and before he knew what he was saying, he quickly blurted out, " Your very beautiful."

She immediately stared at him, shocked by that last statement. Taro quickly regretted saying it, and almost wished he could take it back. Not because he didn't think it was true, but because he was afraid that she would think that he was a fool for saying something like that. After a moment she coughed into her fist and tried desperately to change the subject.

"Uh..l-let me look at your hand."

"What for?"

"I have to see how bad it is, so I'll be able to tell how much time you have left."

With a slight hesitation, Taro showed her his hand. After examining it, she arrived at an estimate.

"We have to act fast, you haven't much time."

"How long would you say?"

"Forty-eight hours at the minimum, so I suggest you find a way to get me out of here as soon as possible. If we're going to get to planet Twiloh in time, we have to leave now."

Taro, suddenly went into a panic. He hadn't thought about how they were going to get there.

"We have a problem. I don't know how we can travel to your planet. You can't fly, and there's no way I can fly there in the condition I'm in, let alone take you along."

"But, how did you manage before?"

"We created a portal that transported us there and back."

"Well, then why can't you just do it again?" argued Xena, while becoming irritated.

"My powers have exhausted themselves almost completely. I'm far too weak to create a portal all by myself."

"Who says you have to do it all by yourself?"

"What do you mean?" asked Taro confused.

"Why don't you just ask one of your Ultra friends to help you. There must be at least one who would keep his mouth shut and not rat on us."

Taking what she said into consideration, Taro began thinking over who would be the best choice to go along with them. It has to be someone seemingly close to him, who wouldn't go to his parents. Of course, it also has to be someone who's already aware of the prisoners situation and would at least give him a chance to explain.

It didn't take Taro long to decide who, so he went write ahead and told Xena his one and only choice.

"My brother Ace!"


	11. Chapter 11

Ace, was sitting calmly at his desk, in his office, as he was looking through some recent reports. There wasn't much going on today, so he decided to help some of his brothers with their paper work, so that they could leave early. Not that he loved paper work, but he needed something to pass the time. He was looking through the papers and saw reports made out by Ultraman, Seven, Jack, 80 and even Zoffy. But, as he came to the end of the pile, he noticed that not one report was made out by Taro. He thought this was odd and went completely through the papers again, but still, nothing from Taro.

Ace, scratched the back of his head, as he wondered why Taro hadn't sent in a report. Taro, was always very prompt when it came to paper work, so this was pretty unusual. "Maybe he just forgot," Ace thought to himself, trying to think of an explanation. But, as he thought about it, he realized that he hadn't even really seen Taro for the last few days. He remembered seeing him pass by him in the hall a couple of times, but he never stopped to say anything. If Ace greeted him, he would just mumble something barely audible and keep walking, keeping his gaze on the floor. If he didn't know better, he would think that Taro had something to hide. Ace was beginning to wish that he had looked into it a lot sooner. Taro was his brother, after all, and if he had a problem, it would be up to Ace to help him. Or their parents, of course. Even though, they only adopted Ace, he still sees them as his true parents, and Taro as his true brother.

Ace's, thoughts were then interrupted by a light knock on the door. He quickly straightened up his desk, and placed all his papers in a neat pile, before getting up to see who it was. As he went to the door, he immediately hoped that it might be Taro, so that he could finally talk to him. He was surprised, though, to open the door and not find Taro, but Ultra Mother standing there.

"Mother…uh, what are who…I mean, come in!," Ace stuttered, as he quickly stepped aside and gestured for her to come in.

She stepped inside his office, and Ace knew right away that something was wrong. He closed the door and offered her a chair, which she refused. She looked at him, while rubbing her hands together nervously, showing how upset she really was. Ace, was just about to ask what was the matter, when she beat him to it.

"Ace, have you noticed anything strange about your brother lately?" He could clearly hear the concern in her voice.

"You mean, Taro?"

"Yes!" she practically snapped, startling Ace.

"Uh, well, I guess, I have noticed him keeping to himself lately. Why, what seems to be the problem?" Ace asked, becoming more worried about his brother.

"I don't really know..it's just…"

"Just what?"

"Well, he doesn't come around to visit me and father anymore…and every time I call him, he says that everything is fine and that he's just very busy. But, I can always tell when he's lying. I just know that something is wrong, and it all started when you and him returned from your last mission."

"You mean, where we picked that strange girl?"

"Yes. Ace, I'm so worried about him, so would you please just go and talk to him? I would, but he seems to be avoiding me. Maybe he'll listen to you."

Seeing how truly concerned she was, Ace knew that he could hardly refuse. Not that he wanted to anyway, since he too, was curious as to why Taro was acting so strange. So he assured Ultra Mother that he would see Taro and get to the bottom of this. He told her that everything would be fine, though, he wasn't totally sure whether it would be or not.

Taro, was in the middle of his plan, as to how he would get Xena out of jail. He had waited until it was night so that there wouldn't be anyone around, that is except for the guard on duty. He decided that he would just tell the guard that he was transporting the prisoner to another location, inside space headquarters, so that she again could be brought in for questioning. Taro, of course, knew that he could never get away with it, unless he had actual written orders, by ultra father himself, or commander Zoffy. So Taro decided to risk printing fake orders, and was even so desperate as to forge his father's name on them. The name, however, had to be handwritten, so Taro did his best to imitate his handwriting, and just hoped the guard wouldn't notice.

Taro, walked into the prison, trying to act as cool as possible. He didn't recognize the night guard, which was good, since it meant that he had never seen Taro visiting the prisoner before. The guard saluted him, already knowing Taro's authority.

"I have specific orders from Father of Ultra, to relocate the female prisoner in solitary."

Taro, could see the curious look on the guards face, since he was probably wondering why Ultra father would want the prisoner moved in the middle of the night, of all times.

"May I see the orders Master Taro? Only for a precaution."

"Of course," Taro tried his best not to hesitate as he handed over the fake orders.

The guard looked them over and didn't seem to be becoming suspicious. He folded them up and handed them back to Taro, while giving a nod, indicating that they were indeed satisfactory. He unlocked the heavy prison door and walked in by himself, undoubtedly getting Xena ready for safe transport. Taro's safety that is, not hers. After a minute the guard came back out, this time having Xena with him. He had sealed a pair of special forcibly restraining hand cuffs on her. Only to make sure that she wouldn't try anything funny. Without another word, he handed her over to Taro.

Taro, tried his best not to make any personal eye contact with her, until they were completely out of the guards sight, and out of the prison. They walked down the dark sidewalk together, without saying a word. Taro, kept a firm grip on her upper arm, trying not to give a suspicious impression in case anyone saw them. He didn't want to tell her where they were going, until he was sure that they would make it without being spotted. They walked silently together for about five minutes, until Taro led her into a public building. He quickly unlocked one of the room doors and rushed her inside, before anyone saw them.

Xena, looked around the room in confusion, as she realized where he had brought her. His quarters! She spun around to face him with a look of half rage and half embarrassment.

"Why did you bring me here?!"

"It was the only place I could think of. Besides, you have to admit it's better than that prison cell."

She, simply huffed and turned away while crossing her arms, before saying, "But, you know that by tomorrow they'll figure out what you did, and this will definitely be the first place they'll look!"

"Yeah, well, we're not going to be here that long, " Taro said, while getting something in his door.

"What do you mean?" Xena asked, placing her hands on her hips and turning back to him.

"I mean, we're leaving tonight."

"Tonight?!," Xena shouted, then noticed him writing something on a notepad. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to write a note of explanation, in case anyone should come looking for us here, after we've left."

Xena, took this opportunity to fully examine his room. She was surprised as to how simple it was. An ordinary bed, a night stand with a lamp, a single dresser, and a couple other doors, one which was probably a closet.

Taro, finished his note and left it on the dresser where someone would be sure to see it.

"Now, I just have to contact my brother Ace and convince him to help us get back to Twiloh."

"Are you sure he will?"

"I'm not sure, but he's our only chance, " Taro then gave a light moan and rubbed his face, which had started sweating. For a second, Xena was worried that he was going to pass out. But, instead he just sat on his bed and slumped his shoulders, while leaning forward.

"Taro, your getting weaker by the second, " she said while clutching his shoulder, so that he would look at her. "You have to get in touch with your brother before it's too late."

Just then, they heard someone at the door. Taro, immediately stood up, fearing that the security guard had discovered the truth and was here for an investigation. He pulled out of Xena's grip and quickly told her to hide.

"Hurry, get in the closet!" he said in a yelling sort of whisper. Without giving her even a chance to react, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over to the closet. He briskly opened the door, led her inside, and shut it in a fast but quiet manner.

Taro, hurried over to the other door and opened it. He was surprised, but also very relieved, to find that it was only his brother Ace!

"Ace? What are you-? Taro was cut off by Ace.

"Taro, we need to talk."


	12. Chapter 12

"Taro, we need to talk."

"Okay, uh…come in, " Taro said, while gesturing with his hand for him to come in.

Upon entering, Ace briefly scanned the room before turning to Taro, who had just closed and carefully locked the door. Even though, thinking that it was a bit strange, Ace decided to ignore it and just concentrate on the matter at hand.

"Taro,…has anything been bothering you lately?"Ace asked, trying not to let his concern show.

Taro, immediately stiffened at the question, before responding, "Well, I uh…I-I mean no! Wh-why do you ask?"

"It's just that, Mother has been worried about you. You haven't been keeping anything from her have you?" Ace asked, pretending not to notice how tense Taro was getting.

"No," Taro said sternly, but feared that Ace wasn't falling for it. He had really hated lying to his mother like that, and his brother. Especially, since he never had before, which of course only made him feel worse.

After giving a sigh, Ace walked up to Taro and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, in an attempt to get his younger brother to confide in him. Without saying a word, Taro just stared at him.

"Taro…I'm your brother,…you can trust me, " when he still didn't say anything, Ace continued, "Maybe, I can help if you with whatever your dilemma is, if you'll just tell me what's wrong…please!" Ace, practically pleaded.

Taro ,seemed moved by this and looked, as if he was finally ready to tell him, when he suddenly gasped and grabbed his midsection in pain. This startled Ace, and he grabbed Taro by the shoulders with great urgency.

"Taro!" Ace shouted, with panic spread across his face.

This quickly alerted Xena, who was still hiding in the closet at the time. She anxiously placed a hand against the door and grabbed the knob with the other. While, trying to determine whether she should open it, or not, she suddenly heard Taro call out in agony. She was unsure of what he said, or if it was even directed towards her or his brother, but either way, her instincts took over, and she quickly throw open the closet door and rushed out.

She ran out to see Taro, crouched down on his hands and knees with one arm raped around his midsection. His brother Ace, who was right by his side, had one hand on Taro's back and the other on his shoulder, and looked like he didn't know what to do. Upon, hearing something burst open from within the room, Ace's head quickly shot over to the direction of the sound, and nearly gasped in utter shock.

There, standing by Taro's bed, was the same vicious, purple haired, blue skinned creature, from which Ace almost lost his very life, and very much regretted ever laying eyes on. For a moment, Ace's expression was one of complete shock and disbelief, but it was soon turned to one of infatuated anger, now figuring that she must of had something to do with Taro's condition.

"You!" was all Ace could get out at first, "You did this!"

Her, expression turned from anxiously worried, to completely infuriated. Here she was, possibly risking her own life, trying to save the life of one of their kind, even after all the misery they put her through, and now this "ULTRAMAN" had the nerve, to accuse her of causing the whole thing! With feeling her old self beginning to return, Xena tightly clenched both her fists and angrily snarled at the ultra, exposing her sharp piercing white teeth. It took everything she had to avoid attacking him that very second.

"I didn't do this, you "boneheaded" idiot! I'm, trying to help him!" she snapped at him, taking a few steps further, but stopped when Ace protectively moved in front of Taro, apparently trying to shield him from her.

"Get back! Just, stay away from him!" Ace said, protesting to her approaching.

She halted, and was about to start cursing at him, when her eyes suddenly fell back on Taro. While he was still holding his midsection, she noticed he was heaving forward and beginning to cough up something that immediately caught her full attention. Something red.

"Taro!" she gasped as she shouted his name, her voice now full of fear.

Ace quickly turned his attention away from her and back to Taro, noticing the same thing she did. Taro now had both hands on the floor to support himself, as he let out another coughing gag from his throat, while heaving himself forward. Ace, felt his heart racing and undeniable fear beginning to form inside of him, as he realized that Taro was coughing up blood.

"He needs help! He's nearing the last stages!"

"What?" Ace asked in a stressed, yet nervous voice, barely taking his eyes of Taro to look at her.

"He doesn't have much time left. You have to help me get him back to my home world, Twiloh, so we can save him!"

That finally made Ace take his eyes off Taro and he slowly turned his head to Xena, and gave her a questioning look, before asking, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, that if you want your brother, Taro, to live, You AND I, will have to work together to do it, and the only way is to get him back to Twiloh."

After a second of just staring at her, Ace finally asked, "How can I trust you?"

Xena, crosses her arms before saying, "I guess you can't. But, what choice do you have? We either work together, or he dies", she says pointing to Taro. "So? Which is it?"

Ace, looked back at Taro as he tried to decide, and with regret already seeping inside of him, he finally said to her, "Fine."


	13. Chapter 13

"Fine, we'll work together."

"Okay, but we have to hurry! I'll help you get him up, and then you have to create a portal that will take us back to Twiloh," Xena said, kneeling down beside Taro. Ace, then gave her a skeptical look, that she immediately noticed as she took Taro by the arm. "What?"

"I can't just create a portal!"

"Why not?!"she asked confused and irritated.

"In order to make an appropriate portal, we must be out in open space, and I don't see how we can…," Ace stopped, when he noticed Taro trying to get his attention, by grabbing his forearm. "Taro, what is it?"

"I-I can…"he stopped for a moment, while trying to catch his breath, "I can fly…"

"Taro, don't be ridiculous!" Xena said, clearly rejecting the notion. "You can't fly, you can barely stand. We'll just have to think of something else."

"No!" Taro, shouted forcefully enough to show he wasn't kidding. He then pulled out of both their grips with surprising strength, and slowly began to stand up. Fearing that his legs were going to give out again, Ace reached out to him, but Taro briskly raised a hand ,stopping him. He leaned a hand against the nearest wall to help balance himself. He was soon standing straight up, and turned to the others to see their reaction.

Ace, seemed a little bewildered at his sudden strength, seeing how feeble he was a second ago, but Xena on the other hand wasn't, since she had experienced similar cases many times before. And not just from, Taro. She had seen many victims suffer with the same illness. After each episode of pain, and other numerous analgesic symptoms, the patient would have a sudden burst of energy, though each time, the amount of energy would continue to decline, until finally….

"Taro…do you think your strong enough to fly out into space…for a short distance, anyway?"Ace asked, fearing that it was too risky.

"It's not like we have any other choice."

Deep in space, not too far from the land of light:

About twelve hours away from M78, a forceful army made up of multiple ships, travels at a molecular fast rate, as it's on it's way to rage war on an unsuspecting world.

Inside, the largest ship, called the "Yakamura", is a dark figure, overlooking the horizon as the ship zooms through space. He's a tall well built male, with a short shaven beard. His purple hair is quite long with a few strips of white and is pulled into a low ponytail. His eyes are hard and serious with a long red scar going over the right one. One eye is blue and the other with the scar is completely white, which gives a scary look to him. His uniform is, of course, black, and his top has a low neck line, which exposes some of his chest. The top is also sleeveless, revealing two incredibly muscular arms, which are both crossed. He stands as if he's made of stone. He doesn't even turn his head as he is approached by a young soldier.

"Report!" he says in a demanding voice without even moving his eyes to look at the soldier.

"General, sir, our estimated time of arrival to our destination, is twelve hours. We should arrive by noon tomorrow."

"Alert, all personel! I want them to be at their best tomorrow! I will expect nothing less than, perfection! I don't care who these humanoid light beings say they are, nor do I care how supposedly strong they are, I want them all to be put an end to! Do you hear me, lieutenant?!" the general barked at the young lieutenant.

"Yes, sir! I'll give the crew the message," the lieutenant firmly said, trying not to be moved by his superiors outburst. He then walked off to inform the crew.

Once the General knew that the young lieutenant was out of sight, and uncrossing his arms, he slowly reached into the top opening of his shirt, and pulled out a small thin folded piece of paper. He carefully unfolded it, since it was old and most likely very fragile. He looked at it and his hard face suddenly softened.

It was a picture of a little girl, no older than ten. She had long purple hair that went over her shoulders with streaks of pink through it. She had fair blue skin and beautiful bright blue eyes. She appeared to be wearing some kind of uniform, but instead of black, it was gray with a white belt. She wasn't smiling, in fact, her expression was completely blank and free of emotion. She was standing in front of a large building, probably a training academy.

The general gently touched the picture with the girl, before folding it back up and clutching it tightly inside his hand. His eyes looked back up into space and they were now fiercer than ever, as he thought to himself, "I swear I'll make them pay. No one takes my daughter and gets away with! No one!"

Author note: Sorry, that this chapter is a little shorter than usual, I'll try to make the next one longer. I'm sure it's very obvious that this anonymous general is going to turn out to be Xena's father, so hopefully that will lead to something interesting. Please, keep viewing my new chapters and find out! Thank you!


	14. Chapter 14

Taro, was able to regain enough of his energy to fly just past the atmosphere of the land of light with Ace and Xena closely by his side. Of course, with Xena's lack of flight, Ace had no choice but to carry her, much to both their dismay. She put her arm around his shoulders, as he put his around her waist. It felt awkward to fly this way, but Ace decided to just bare with it, since they weren't going to have to fly very long anyway.

Once, they were far enough out, Ace made the portal back to Twiloh. He had a little trouble with it, since he needed both hands to do it, and one was very occupied at the moment. In order, for him to properly do it, Xena had to move behind him, place both hands under his arms and around to the front of his shoulders, clutching them both for "dear life" as he made the arm movements to create the portal.

Within mere seconds, all three of them were transported to the land of Twiloh. At least, they figured they were, even though they couldn't see it at first, due to the cloaking devise. They quickly found and entered the invisible wall, and could now see the planet. They landed on the planet's surface and scanned the familiar area. Nothing appeared to have changed. They walked for a short while, but seeing how tired Taro was from the trip, Xena thought it best for him to rest. So she went ahead of them and found an uninhabited cave, which at first glance seemed safe enough. She then quickly went back to tell the others.

"Hey, guys!" she shouted running up to them, "I found a cave up there near the brush. You both can hide there, so you won't be spotted by any night patrollers."

"What about you?" Ace started. "What are you going to be doing?"

"I" have to find the entrance to the city, and then I have to get to the main laboratory in our science station. Which, is where I'll find the antidote for Taro's condition."

"But, are you sure they'll give it to you?" Taro said in a low shallow voice.

"No. But, it doesn't matter. You two better get to the cave, now," she said, as she turned to leave.

"Wait! What do you mean "doesn't matter"? Just what do you intend to do?" Ace asked, not liking to be kept in the dark.

"None of your concern. Now, get in the cave before someone spots us," She said turning to leave again.

"What do you mean it's none of my-?!"

"Will you just shut up?!, and get in the cave!" Xena snapped, shouting right in Aces face, causing him to take a step back.

Then without a moment of hesitation, Xena shot off into the direction she was going, with great speed. She refrained from looking back at the now offended Ultra, who she was sure was now complaining to Taro about her. Angry now, she silently mumbled to herself as she zigzagged through the bushes, and numerous trees. She ran as fast as she could to avoid being seen by prospectors. "That guy is really beginning to get on my nerves," she whispered aloud through grinded teeth. Figuring she had to keep her mind set on the true problem she was facing, she decided to just push Taro's annoying brother out of her head, so she could focuse on the task at hand. From mere memory she was soon able to find the main underground entrance to her city. There were other ways in of course, but this one was the closest and the easiest to get to.

Not wasting any time, Xena quickly cleared the entrance from all the brush and shrubs that were used to hide it from predators. After taking a quick look around to make sure that no had followed her, she briskly entered the underground cave, and ran through the pitch dark tunnel that led straight to the urban city, and her home. But, strangely though, that didn't seem to mean much to her right now. At the moment, all she had her mind locked on was finding that medication that may save Taro's life. That is, if she could get it to him in time. She felt adrenaline surge through her body as she spotted a light at the end of long tunnel. She was almost there!

After Xena rushed off, Ace and a very weak Taro went on, and without much difficulty found the cave, which they assumed was the one she had told them about. They cautiously entered, fearing that it may already be occupied by something they'd rather not meet. Once they knew it was all clear, they tried to get comfortable. At least, as comfortable as they could in a dark, weird, creepy cave. Taro practically staggered on their way into the cave, and probably would have collapsed, if not for Ace supporting almost half his weight. Once inside, Ace helped Taro lower himself to the rock floor, so that he could sit and relax for awhile, until Xena returned. Not wanting to have to wait in complete darkness, Ace found some decent sized red rocks, and placed them in the center of the cave. Then shooting a special ray at them, the rocks lit up, releasing a comforting red glow.

"That's better," said Ace, satisfied with his work. Little did he know, that that light was only going to attract nothing but trouble.

Xena, crouched down behind a brick wall as she heard the last of the workers leave the science station. There were at least three, and she waited until their voices completely died out before she made her move. Peering up over the brick wall to see if everything was clear, she noticed that all the lights in the twelve story building were out. Assuming that it meant everyone had gone home, Xena with one quick move, sprang over the wall that surrounded the whole front of the building, and landed crouched down into the bushes. Within a split second she bolted from her location, and rushed to the main entrance so fast that no one would had time to see her. With help from her dark clothing of course.

Creeping up to the only front door, Xena peered through it's glass window looking for any night guards. Seeing no one, and knowing that the door was bound to be locked, she took off one off her black gloves, and being careful not to leave any finger prints, she affectively stuck it partially through the glass section of the door and began cut out a circle shape. Once completing it, she gently gave it a tap, which pushed it through causing it to give a small breaking sound as it hit the floor on the other side of the door. After putting her glove back on, she quickly reached her arm through the medium sized glass hole, unlocking the door from the other side. Upon entering the building she quietly closed the door behind her, wanting to avoid suspicion from any passing citizens on the outside.

While constantly looking around, Xena silently,but quickly went up the back stairway until she reached the forth floor, which is where, if memory serves her correctly, the pharmacy laboratory is. She soon found the right room she was looking for, which had printed on it, "Pharmacology Experimentation", which is where scientist would test new solutions and medications to see if they were safe and affective enough to use on the public. As she was reaching for the knob though, to her horror she realized someone inside the room was just beginning to turn the knob. Thinking fast, she pressed herself against the wall parallel to the door, so as it opened the door hide her from immediate view. Two male scientist came out, and Xena held her breath as one of them closed the door without looking back. They both went on their way and Xena breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close," she thought to herself. She then slowly turned the knob to the door and carefully peaked in to be sure that there was no one left this time. The room was dark which told her there was no one else. She walked in, closed the door, and without looking felt for the light switch, before realizing that it would probably be wise not to turn on the light, since it may send a signal to someone outside. So deciding to use her night vision she quickly began to look for the antidote. Looking at the labels on all the glass cases where they keep special medicines, she finally stumbled on the one marked, "Adelocosa serum." Before she had a chance to think, she broke the glass with her hand grabbed the bottle, and was about to make a run for the door, when suddenly again she heard somebody coming. "Not again!" she hissed as she ducked down behind a table.

The door opened, and it was the same two scientists as before. "I forgot my paper work, I'll just be a minute," the tall one said to the shorter one as they both walked in, not bothering to close the door. After a few minutes and they still didn't leave, Xena was beginning to get very irritable and frustrated. And when they both then got into a totally deferent conversation, she couldn't take it anymore. She burst out from under that table, sprang at the two guys, and then suddenly everything went black.


	15. Chapter 15

Back in the cave, Taro had finally drifted off to sleep, though not very peacefully with all the worries that he had at the moment. He was asleep for no longer than five minutes, when a sound suddenly woke him up. He lifted his head up from the ground and scanned the cave. All seemed calm and quiet. He spotted Ace sitting on the ground and leaning against a boulder. He was sound asleep. Taro, didn't know how long Xena had been gone and he was beginning to wonder whether something was delaying her. If someone caught her stealing the antidote, it would mean bad news for all of them.

Taro, was just about to fall asleep again, when he heard a twig snap. He quickly sat up, and attempted to stand, fearing that it might be a night patroller. Even if it was, he knew that he wouldn't be able to defend himself, not in this condition. He was completely helpless. Leaning his hands on a boulder, he tried desperately to lift himself up, as he heard something running their way at a fast pace. He had just made it to his feet when a familiar figure came rushing through the entrance of the cave. Taro breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Taro…,"Xena said, trying to catch her breath from running, "are you ok?"

"Uh…yeah, I guess. What kept you so long,…I was afraid you weren't going to make it back."

"Yeah, well, I ran into…a couple of "difficulties." But, don't worry, I dealt with them rather nicely," Xena said with pride. Taro, decided not to ask her what "sort" of difficulties.

"But, did you get it?"

"Yeah…I got it."

Taro, then felt a lode of relief and was about to take a step towards her, to thank her, when his legs went numb and gave out on him. He stumbled to the ground, and he could see Xena rush forward, in order to grab him, even though she was a little late. He laid on his stomach with his arms slightly above his head. He could feel himself beginning to lose consciousness. He tried to lift himself up, but he just couldn't. He felt Xena's hands on his shoulders as she began to turn him over on to his back. She was saying something, but he couldn't understand what. He was starting to lose all sense of reality. If his vision hadn't gone blurry he would have been able to see the look of fear on Xena's face.

Xena, quickly turned Taro over on to his back, and placed his head on her lap, though he probably didn't notice. Her heart almost pounded out of her chest as her thoughts were racing on what to do. She was losing him fast, so whatever she was going to do, she had to do it now! Just as she was beginning to feel completely lost, she suddenly remembered the antidote. With great agility, she reached to her belt and pulled out the little brown bottle she stuck there. She was even so anxious as to rip the sealed cap off with her teeth. She knew that it was suppose to be administered by injection, but there was no time. She held the bottle over Taro's mouth and began to pour it out. A thin clear liquid proceeded from the bottle. She tried to get him to swallow as much as she could, and just prayed that it would be enough.

Once she used all the medicine, Xena could do nothing but wait. Without moving his head from her lap, Xena just sat still staring at him, waiting for him to respond. He had lost consciousness and now laid motionless. He was breathing, though, which at least showed her he was still alive, but it was slow and shallow. She placed a hand over the center of his chest so she could feel his breathing, since for some reason it slightly comforted her. "What if the antidote didn't work!"Xena thought to herself, her mind filling with panic. It was never actually tested on anyone. It was only a likely theory made by a scientist. But, it had to work. It just had to!

"Taro,…you have to be alright," Xena whispered aloud, "If your not, I'll kill you," she chocked on a sob as tears began to swell up in her eyes.

As if he could read her mind, Taro began to slightly turn his head and let out a low moan. He was coming to! Xena's heart leapt with excitement, as she noticed him beginning to stir.

"Xena?" he whispered under his breath as he was becoming conscious.

"Taro! Taro, are you alright?"

"What happened?" Taro asked drowsily, while reaching up to rub his head.

"You passed out, but it doesn't matter. The medicines working! Do you think you can stand?"

"I don't know. I guess I can try-," Taro cut himself off when he suddenly noticed his head was laying on Xena's lap. He looked up at her in bewilderment, and it was at this time that he could tell by the look on her face that she truly cared about him. This was also the first time he ever saw her smile. She was so beautiful.

When Xena noticed the way he was looking at her, probably from surprise of her being so happy about his recovery, she turned her head away, and asked, "Would you like me to help you up?"

Realizing he was making her uncomfortable, he stopped staring at her and answered with, "Uh, sure."

She helped him sit up and he got up the rest of the way on his own, which surprised her. "I guess he really is cured, "Xena thought to herself.

They were both now standing in front of each. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Taro decided to break the ice. "I, uh…never got the chance to thank you…for what you did for me." Xena said nothing and just starred at the ground . A strange sense of tenseness filled the air that neither one of them could recognize. Taro decided to continue, "I really appreciate it, and I, uh..am glad to be able to call you my friend."

Xena, then looked up and starred at Taro in a way that she never did before and he responded the same way. They both then felt this sudden impulse that seemed to make them feel drawn to each other. Neither of them paid any attention to their surroundings, or even the fact that Taro's brother Ace was still sleeping through this whole thing. Without even realizing it, Taro took a couple steps forward, until they were only inches apart. Xena almost took a step back but didn't, not knowing why, but also not caring. Then, to her horror, she found herself instinctively beginning to lean forward. With her face coming closer to taro's.

Taro, felt his heart skip a beat as he realized how close he and Xena were. And he felt like he was about to have a heart attack, as he noticed her leaning forward. He was completely terrified. He didn't have a clue what to do. He'd never been in such a situation before. As she kept leaning forward, her face coming closer to his, his mind screamed at himself to step back and stop her from whatever it was she was doing. But he didn't. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. For one shocking reason. He wanted her to! He wanted her! He couldn't hold it back any longer. So, he too leaned forward. Until, their mouths finally touched.

Time froze, at least for them it did. Nothing else mattered to them except each other. Taro was now feeling things he never thought he could. He felt his whole body beginning to heat up. Sort of like a fever, only this was way more pleasant and desired. It felt strange for a moment…her mouth against his, but he soon got used to it. He never did kiss a girl before, other than his mother, of course, but this was different. This was wonderful! Just when Taro didn't think it could get any better, Xena surprised him by beginning to move her mouth over his. This was all foreign to him so he thought he would let her lead the way, but he soon began to catch on. His hands found their way to her waist and he angled his head to the side, so that he could deepen the kiss. Before Taro knew what he was doing, he had leaned her down and was now laying over her on the rock ground. She had rapped both arms around his neck and tried desperately to press her body up against his by slightly arching her back from the ground.

They continued in this way for several minutes, until Xena un-expectantly pulled out of the kiss, with a serious look on her face, as she seemed to be listening to something.

"What is it?" Taro asked confused.

"I hear something."

"What?"

After taking a second trying to distinguish the sound, Xena suddenly looked to the other side of the cave, right at those glowing red rocks that Ace had lit earlier. Her face grew with fear as she quickly got up from the ground practically pushing Taro off of her. She rushed over to the rocks, looking at them for a second and then back over at taro, who was now standing too, with a furious look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Taro asked now worried.

"Did you do this?!," her voice was firm and demanding.

"No, Ace. Why? What's wrong?!"

"That was a stupid thing to do!"

Her frantic shouting finally woke up Ace, who had seemed dead to the world, until now.

'What's going on?" Ace asked confused as he stood up and saw Taro standing in perfect health. "Taro, are you okay?!"

"Never mind that! We have to put out these rocks, now!"

Ace and Taro, both looked at each other as she started to try and stamp out the rocks light with her black boots. Taro was about to ask her again about what was going on, when he suddenly heard a strange continuous sound. Ace heard it to. It started as a low buzzing, but quickly began to get louder.

"What's that!?"

Xena stopped pounding out the rocks and turned to them both with a look of panic and seriousness, "We have to get out of here!" She started heading towards the exit when Taro stopped her.

"Wait! What's happening? What's wrong?!"

"Their coming! We have to go now, or they'll kill us!"Xena desperately tried to pull out of his grip.

"Kill us? Who?!"

Xena suddenly stopped struggling and looked at him with a blank expression, before saying in a dull voice, "Their attracted to light."

Taro then glanced over at the lighted rocks, before looking out into the darkness of the forest, where that buzzing sound was coming from. It got louder and louder, until finally Taro could make out these odd shapes coming towards them. He looked closer, and when he could finally make out the shapes he gasped in shock. There, flying towards them, were hundreds of gigantic blood sucking mosquitoes! Yes, mosquitoes. Each of them at least two feet long.


	16. Chapter 16

"What in the world are those?!" Ace gasped in shock.

"Giant mosquitoes!" Taro answered, remembering the numerous times he saw them on earth. Way smaller of course.

"We call them carriers of death! We have to get out of here, come on!" Xena shouted, while clutching Taro's upper arm so hard that it hurt.

"Ouch!" Taro shouted, pulling his eyes off of the massive swarm that was coming towards them.

"Come on, come on!" She shouted with urgency as a single one of the giant bugs came right at them into the cave. Just as the creatures blood sucking snout came at them, Xena sprinted out of the corner entrance of the cave, while pulling Taro along with her and Ace running right behind them. Once they were completely clear from the cave, Xena finally released Taro's arm as the three ran for their lives. Taro, breathed a quick sigh from the pain relieved. He took a second to quickly glance at his arm to see Xena's painful nail prints embedded there. As he began rubbing it, he suddenly realized he made a big mistake for not focusing on his surroundings, as he heard a sharp buzzing directly behind him. Just as he was about to turn to look, he heard Xena call out to him.

"Taro, look out!"

His head shot over to her just as she threw something that looked like a rock. He then heard a painful squeal behind him from whatever it was she it. He turned to see a giant mosquito falling to the ground. He didn't stop to see whether it would get back up. It was at least several minutes before they finally stopped to rest when all the buzzing sounds finally died out into the distance. Taro and Ace stood panting a moment from running to their limit. Xena, on the other hand, just stood glaring at them with her hands placed on her hips and didn't seem the least bit out of breath. After giving them a moment to catch their breath, she crossed her arms and starred at them very sternly. After giving her a confused look Ace and Taro were about to ask her what was the matter now, when she beat them to it.

"What's the matter with you idiots, are you trying to get us all killed?!"

Taro, looked at her in disbelief, while wondering how she could possibly be blaming them for what just happened. "What do you mean by th-?"

"I mean, lighting up those rocks! Anyone with half a brain should know that many creatures are attracted to bright light. What are you, learning impaired, or something?!"

"You can't blame us!" Ace's blood was now boiling. "It's not like you ever warned us about what was out there…if it's anyone's fault, it's-"

"Mine, I suppose?!" Xena finished for him taking a few steps closer. "I never heard "you" asking, about what kind of precautions to take for any existing risk, which any "responsible" person would have!"

"Why didn't I ask?" Ace asked in utter disbelief. "Why should I have asked, if there were man eating, blood sucking, giant bug like creatures, which closely resemble earth mosquitoes, infesting the planet, and which are also attracted to the smallest amount of light?!"

Without saying another word, the infuriated Xena gritted her teeth and hissed at the ultra, obviously wanting to tar him limb from limb. But, Ace didn't back down. He crossed his arms and stood his ground, with his anger equaling hers, though not so publically displayed. He stood staring at her fearlessly, almost daring her to make a move. She looked like she was about ready to, when Taro stepped in between them.

"Stop this! Both of you!" Taro demanded forcefully looking from one to the other. "Fighting isn't going to solve anything! No one is to blame for what happened, alright?" Ace and Xena both looked at each other, but didn't say anything. "The important thing is we're all still alive, so let's just leave it at that."

After a pause, Xena spoke in a lower, but still serious voice, "He's right." She felt Taro's gaze on her but ignored it. "We accomplished our goal…and that's all that matters."

"So…"Ace started, "what happens, now?"

It suddenly dawned on Taro that he hadn't given that any thought. Mainly because, he didn't think they would even get this far. Obviously, now that he was better, he and Ace would be able to return home as if nothing ever happened. But, what about Xena? …After all they've been through, could he really just leave her and forget about her. Would she forget about him? Surely, that moment they had in the cave meant something. Taro was suddenly pulled out of his train of thought, when Ace placed a hand up in order for silence, while looking the other way. Great…now, what?!

"Do you guys hear something?" We all listened and heard footsteps coming this way. "Someone's coming!"

"Quick!" Xena urged in a yelling whisper. "Get in the bushes, and don't come out no matter what happens."

"What did she mean by that?" Taro thought as he and Ace hid.

With stealth, Xena climbed up a tree and hid in the branches, while waiting for whoever it was to come closer. All Taro and Ace could see was a dark shadowy figure walking through the woods, they couldn't make out any other features, except that they were wearing some sort of helmet. As Taro tried to get a better look, he accidentally stepped on a branch. The figures head immediately snapped in their direction. Taro and Ace held their breath as the mysterious figure slowly began to approach. Then before they knew what happened Xena jumped down from the tree and pounced on the dark figure. He hit the ground with Xena squatting over him. She delivered several bullet punches to his head, before he grabbed her fist and using one leg kicked her in the gut pushing her backward. With great speed the figure jumped to his feet and got into a fighting stance. She charged him first and did a full round house kick which he ducked under. He then threw a quick left and right cross, both of which she blocked. Xena, kicked him hard straight in the chest knocking him back into a tree. Then without a moment's hesitation, the figure reached to his side and pulled out a long shiny object. A ninja sword!

Raising the sword high with both hands he sprinted forward and swung it at Xena's head twice with lightning speed. She arched her back, missing the blade by mere inches. As he was about to bring it straight down on her she grabbed where his hands were on the sword and kneed him right in the groin, causing him to let out a cry of pain as he sunk to his knees. She kicked him in the head knocking him backward and grabbing his sword from him, held it up to his neck making him freeze. It was at this moment that he got the chance to closely look her over and was shocked.

"Xena?…is it really you?"

Author note: I'm so sorry for how long it took me to finally update, and I hope you forgive me. In the future I'll try to update more regularly. Thank you, for being so wonderfully patient, and thank you for reading!


	17. Chapter 17

"Xena…is it really you?"

Xena, slowly withdrew the sword from the man's neck, but remained in a fighting stance as she suspiciously eyed him. He cautiously began to stand up while holding both hands up in defense. Xena allowed him to stand, but still held up the sword ready to strike.

"Explain, yourself!"Xena spoke in a demanding tone.

Not seeming the least bit intimidated by her threatening tone, he responded rather calmly, "Xena, it's me,..Diaval."

Her expression quickly changed from one of anger to one of surprise, as the male soldier removed his helmet revealing his familiar face. Xena immediately lowered her weapon and paused, waiting for him to say something else. After an awkward silence of at least thirty seconds, Diaval stepped closer, but stopped when she gave him a questioning look.

"Xena, what happened? Where have you been?! The whole planet has gone berserk, since you disappeared that day! Were you kidnapped or something? Just what happened? Tell me!"

Not sure whether she should answer those questions or not, Xena stood silently, not wanting to put her friends (the Ultras) in any more danger than necessary. As a result of her stubbornness to answer, Diaval sighed in frustration before saying, "Fine, if that's the way you want it, I'll contact headquarters and you can tell them instead." Diaval had just reached his transmitter when Xena sprinted forward and grabbed his wrist which held it, twisting it, causing him to give a mere grunt of discomfort. Not appearing to be very surprised by her sudden action and without removing his wrist from her grip, he stared into her serious eyes for a moment before asking, "So… does this mean, your going to tell me what's going on?"

After a moment she released his arm and took a step back. Not wanting to meet his gaze, she turned slightly to the side and crossed her arms, before giving an annoyed sigh and saying, " It's a long story and it's very complicated."

"Well, I've got plenty of time,…so how about you start at the beginning."

Xena, inconspicuously glanced over at bushes where Taro and Ace were still hiding, before she turned to face Diaval and decided she had little choice, but to tell him the truth. She explained to him about how she disappeared, where she had been and how she was able to get back. She told him about the Ultramen on M78, and that they were peaceful people and that they never meant to harm her, and that she had actually befriended some of them. She made it all too clear that they were the ones who had enabled her to return home, though she left out the part about Taro's illness, since that would have made it seem like they were just using her. Diaval, seemed to believe most of what she was saying, since he obviously knew her well enough to know that she wasn't a lire. But when she came to the part about being friends with some of them and that they actually helped her, he seemed to tense up and was beginning to worry about something. Xena, noticed this and quickly questioned it.

"Diaval, what's wrong?"

He didn't answer, keeping his gaze down, and even seemed to go a bit pale if that was even possible.

"Diaval…?"

When he still didn't acknowledge her, she sought another means to get his attention. She walked right up to him and without a moment's hesitation, struck him right across the face with the back of her gloved hand. She knew it must have hurt, though he didn't even flitch at the impact. She then clutched his shoulders and shook them hard to get his full attention, before shouting in his face, "Diaval, if you don't tell me what's up, I sware I'm going to use you as a punching bag!"

"Xena…" She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was scared, though she couldn't imagine of what," …they are on their way…they are on their way there, now," Diaval spoke barely above a whisper.

"They? They who? On their way where?"

"The Twilloite army!" Diaval shouted, "Their on their way to the planet M78, or the Land of Light as you call it."

"What?!" Xena's voice was now filled with fear.

"They are going to rage war on the Ultras," Xena stood in utter shock at the news, "It all started when they had traced your mysterious disappearance to the Ultras, I think that's what provoked the whole thing. They wanted to attack them, before they attacked us, but now after what who've told me, I see it's mostly just a big misunderstanding."

"You can say that again!" Taro shouted on impulse as he and Ace stood up spontaneously from their former kneeling position.

Diaval's head quickly shot over into the direction of the strange voice and was shocked to see two strange looking life forms coming towards them out of the brush. On pure instinct he briskly snatched his sword out of Xenas hands and went into a fighting stance about to strike when Xena took action and stood between him and the two ultras, with her facing Diaval.

"Diaval, no!" she shouted ,putting both hands up by his blade motioning for him to stop. "It's alright, their friends, the ones that I told you about."

With that he lowered his weapon and eyed the two up and down, giving them rather strange looks. It was obvious he had never seen anyone of their kind before.

"Xena, me and Ace have to get back to M78, before the your army gets there so we can warn them!" said Taro stepping beside her.

"Who knows what kind of damage they could do?!" said Ace obviously just as anxious.

"You will never make it in time," Diaval interrupted. "Considering the time they left they'll be there within mere hours."

"Xena, who have to get to your headquarters and urge them to call off the invasion!," said Taro.

"Well, I still don't understand. Why would my meager disappearance cause the entire planet to go to war. Any reasonable empire should see that without further investigation it's not logically worth all this bloodshed!"

"Your right Xena, and you may even perhaps be able to convince mission control, of that. But I'm afraid your abduction will not be so calmly handled by the leader of the invasion."

"And who the heck is that?" asked Xena crossing her arms.

"General Sarek."

Xena froze for a moment earning odd looks from both Ace and Taro.

"Xena, what's wrong? Who's Sarek?"

"Never mind, him, we have to get back to M78, now before it's too late!" said Xena snapping out of her frozen state.

"We?" spoke Ace and Taro at the same time.

"That's right, I'm going with you."

"But-"

"No but's! If you want to save that planet of yours this is the only way! Diaval, can you get me a glider right away?"

"You got it!"

Another location: Back on the Land of Light

Ultra Father was in the conference room in space headquarters, with Ultraman and Zoffy. They were calmly discussing the recent planetary alignment when Jack suddenly rushed through the doors with urgency.

"UltraFather!… " it took him a moment to catch his breath, "We just picked up a signal on our scanners, it shows that there is a massive army of UFO's headed in our direction!"

UltraFather and the others shared a brief pause from receiving the shocking news, but it quickly passed.

"What do you mean, Jack? What kind of UFO's?," Ultrafather asked in a serious voice.

"I'm not sure, sir, but…"Jack trailed off nervously.

"But, what?!"

"I'm not sure, sir, but they may have originated from the northern galaxy, which could mean…"

"Which could mean, what?" Ultraman quickly asked.

"Which "could" mean, that their from the same quadrant where that new planetary system was discovered."

"You mean, Twilloh?" asked Zoffy.

"Yes."

"But, you don't know for sure. It could be something completely different," Ultraman pointed out.

"Maybe…but there's something else."

"What, is it Jack?," asked Ultrafather, stepping closer.

"It's…about your son's."

Ultrafathers heart suddenly skipped a beat, which made him slightly hesitate before asking, "What about them?"

"Their gone."

"Gone?!" Ultraman and Zoffy shouted at the same time. Ultrafather merely stood in shock.

"Missing, I should say. They disappeared without a trace, no one has heard from them since yesterday, except that is, for the guard at the prison."

"What? What guard?!" Ultrafather said coming out of his state of shock.

"The guard at the prison. He said, Taro was there to get the Twillohite prisoner."

"Why would Taro need to get the prisoner?! "

"The guard said, that he was following your orders to bring the prisoner in for questioning."

"What?! I never gave such orders!"Ultrafather exclaimed in rage.

"You didn't?!" Jack asked surprised.

"No, of course not! Now check the prison immediately and make sure she's still there!"

"Yes, Ultrafather," with that Jack quickly left to check the prison and anywhere else she may have been taken.

In the mean time, Ultrafather sat down at the conference table and became deep in thought. He didn't seem to care at the moment that Ultraman and Zoffy were still waiting for some sort of orders, like going to find Taro and Ace, and figure out what was going on. He just sat there with his head I his hands and thought to himself, "Why would Taro do this, why?"

Author Note: Sorry, if this chapter seems a little on the dull side, but hopefully I'll pick up the pace in the next chapter. Thank you, for reading!


	18. Chapter 18

Location, The Land of Light: Time, 12:00 o'clock noon.

For the citizens of M78, it seemed to be a perfectly beautiful day. Ultramen and women walked the streets without a single care or fear of anything. Children laughed and played, being unaware of the danger that would soon be upon them. But, they were soon to learn.

A couple of young male Ultra rookies walked down the peaceful street, while having a casual conversation."So, Seti, what are you doing tonight?," said, one rookie to the other.

"Oh, I've got a date with one of the new female medics" after a brief pause,….,"How about you?"

"I'm putting in some extra hours at the space garrison. I probably won't get off, until at least ten. You know I've been trying to get that promotion, so I figure every little bit helps." The other nods in response.

The two continued to walk for another several seconds, until one of them suddenly stops and looks around suspiciously. "Is something wrong, Jay?" the one named Seti asked, stopping also.

Jay, took a couple seconds before responding, "I don't know, I just have this strange feeling all of a sudden…, like, were being watched, or something."

Seti, looked around oddly for a moment, before suddenly sensing the same thing. They both turned their gazes up to the sky, which at first glance seemed normal, but after a moment they both felt something wasn't right about it. Like there was something there that they couldn't see. After staring at it intently, they could just barely make out these transparent shapes moving invisibly through the clouds. Then after a moment everything seemed to freeze, and this faint humming sound seemed to come out of nowhere. It then caught the attention of a young woman with a child who were passing by, and noticed the two young ultras looking up at the sky.

"What's that?," she asked curiously, looking up also, while squeezing her child's hand tighter.

Then all of a sudden the humming stopped, and an energizing sound of something loading filled the sky, just before a flashing ball of blinding light appeared out of nowhere, and shot a powerful beam, which closely resembled purple lightning, right in the center of the city, in the middle of the street. Screams of panic and shock filled the air. Then before anyone knew what was happening, another powerful beam fired right into the side of a large skyscraper, causing half the building to tumble down into the town below. People frantically ran for their lives as pieces of debris fell into the streets. Many people ran into opposite directions, and out of confusion even accidently trampled each other. Some ultras, out of panic, blindly shot beams into the sky, since they had no idea where the enemy was.

Out of all the confusion and chaos, a young girl ultra child wondered into the middle of the damaged street, as numerous ultras ran passed trying to get to safety, not even noticing the girl. The small girl, no older than seven, stood looking around frantically for her mother, who she was separated from. Being so filled with fear, she didn't even take notice of a blast from above that was being prepared to fire right where she was. She just stood, calling for her mother, "Mommy! Mommy, where are you?!" she sounded on the verge of tears.

A woman from the crowd turned to the sound of the calls, and screamed in horror to see her daughter right in the line of fire. "Juanita!" she shouted as she tried to fight her way through all the terrified ultras.

Just as the shot was fired right where the helpless little girl stood, a strong force swooped in, grabbing the girl and flew her out of the way, just as the powerful blast penetrated the ground. The little girl, dumbfounded at what just happened, looked up to find herself in the arms of a well built Ultraman, with the colors of red, blue, and gray covering his body, along with two objects on his head, which she recognized as eye sluggers. Which, could only mean…

"Are you, okay?" he asked quickly, placing her back down on her feet.

"I-I th-think so," she stuttered, still not being able to process what just happened. "Who are you?"

"I'm Zero, Ultraman Zero. But, enough about me! Let's go find your parents," just as he said that he turned to see a woman frantically running up to them, kneeling down and pulling the girl into a tight hug. Figuring she was obviously the mother, Zero took the chance to take off and find a way to stop whatever this new threat was. He heard the girl's mother shout a brief "Thank you " to him, just as he took off.

Zero flies up until he's clear of the city and looks around expectantly. All is suddenly quiet and the sky is as clear as ever. As Zero looks from side to side, he quietly mummers to himself, "Where are you?" After another moment of silence and still nothing, Zero clenches his fists and shouts in frustration, "Show yourself!" Still nothing. Zero, now becoming infuriated continues, "Stop hiding like a coward, and show yourself!"

Only then did he finally get a response, as a purple ball of lightning appeared out of nothing and shot directly at him. Zero, who was hoping that he would provoke this type of reaction, immediately created a shield, blocking the blast. Then without a moment to spare, Zero quickly brought his arms into an L shape and shot a beam at approximately the same location where the last one came from, successfully hitting the invisible craft. As the beam made impact the craft seemed to be shaken and for a split second became vaguely visible, but then no sooner as it was seen it was gone again. Then Zero being pleased with himself, and just before shooting the Emuriam ray, said to himself, "There you are." He then shot his emuriam ray from the beam lamp on his forehead, directly hitting the object once again. The transparent form of the craft flickered back and forth.

On board the ship:

"General, sir! Our left tunic power engine has been greatly damaged!"

"Impressive," the general said, as he sat in his chair on the bridge, where he was able to witness everything.

"But, sir, with the loss of power we won't be able to maintain our camouflage system," the ships commander interjected.

"Very well. If, this arrogant subspecies wants us to reveal ourselves…then so be it. Order all ships to shut down cloaking devises! I want these repulsive beings to see the bread who's going to dominate them!"

Inside space headquarters:

"What's going on out there?!" Ultrafather demanded, as he and ultramother approached the rest of the ultra brothers.

"Sir, we're being attacked!" Mebius blurted out before anyone else could say anything.

"What?! By who?!" Ultrafather immediately inquired.

"Sir, some unknown force is randomly firing electrical blasts on the city," Ultraman responded.

Ultramother gasped, as ultrafathers facial expression hardened at the information.

"The city is in a state of panic, sir!" Zoffy added stepping forward. "We must take immediate action, before the city is turned into a complete disaster area!"

"What do you suggest we do?!" Jake asked.

"Have you sent anyone out yet, to locate the source of the problem?"

"Yes," seven answered, "I gave my son Zero that task, but he hasn't reported back to us yet."

Zero was planning his next attack, when a booming voice stopped him from doing so. He couldn't pin point exactly where it was coming from, but he assumed it was proceeding from the partly invisible space ship. At first to him it sounded like foreign jiberish, but soon translated itself into Japanese.

"Inferior life form, you have trespassed on our land, threatened our people, and provoked us to war! Now, you, and your people will suffer the consequences!"

"Not if I can help it," Zero declared just as he was about to fire another beam at the enemy, but abruptly stopped, when the ship finally came into clear view.

The whole atmosphere then gave off loud humming sounds from all directions. Zero gasped as one by one, alien ships were becoming visible and appearing out of nowhere. They kept coming, until the whole sky seemed to blanketed with ships and blocked out almost all light. Zero looked on, speechless and in utter shock at the incredibly massive army.

Zero's sense of reality finally returned, when he heard a shot being fired from behind. He instinctively turned, to see the shot coming right at him. He avoided it, but then several more were blasted from the side with one hitting him directly in the chest. He gasped at the pain, but then gave a yell in anger as he shot a wide beam at the craft, blowing up half of it. He then quickly grabbed his eye sluggers and threw them in opposite directions, with both doing even amounts of damage to several crafts. Once they flew back to him at blinding speed, he slammed them on to his chest, parallel to each other, and threw his arms back, while shouting " Zero twin shoot!" He then shot the very powerful beam into the enemy ships while turning, destroying multiple ships at a time. But, even with Zeros powerful attacks the number of enemy ships just seemed to keep multiplying. It wasn't long before various ships shot at Ultra from all directions, therefore giving him nowhere to go and hitting him from all sides.

"Ultrafather, have you received any news on Master Taro, or Ace, since their odd disappearance the other day? ," Mebius randomly asked, but quickly regretted it, as Ultrafather almost seemed to flinch at the question. He hesitated before answering,

"No…no, there's been nothing," he spoke solemnly. Ultramother then placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he didn't acknowledge it. Right now it was his duty to protect the planet, and as hard as it was, he had to force himself to concentrate on nothing else, until the threat was completely resolved.

Just then Ultraman walked over to an opening in the building looked out. He immediately did a double take at what he saw and some of the others noticed this.

"What's , wrong, brother?," Mebius was the first to inquire.

Without taking his eyes off the scene, he seriously said, "Your all going to want to take a look at this."

They all approached the opening and gaped at what they saw. Every single inch of the sky was occupied by dark monstrous looking ships. Each one was covered in blood red colored markings, which resembled some form of writing. Each of them were carrying leasers, one on each side and a larger one on the bottom. They also had spikes going all the way down the centers of the tops, and along the sides, which were probably meant to make them look more intimidating to the enemy. Which were the Ultras.

Just as Ultrafather was about to give the order to attack, he refrained when something came hurling through the sky and crashed right into the side of the space garrison. Along with such force that it went right through the steel wall and smashed right into the other side of the room where they were, though they were all clear from the impact. It was so fast; however, that they couldn't even see what it was as it embedded in the corner of the large hall with a section of the ceiling collapsing on top of it.

Ultraseven, Ultraman and Zoffy rushed over to the area of the crash and quickly began clearing away the heavy debris that covered whatever was there. After a minute, they all lifted up the last piece of ceiling that laid over it, and then Seven gasped at what they saw.

"Zero!"

Author Note: I hope none of you think it's that awkward that I suddenly added Zero to the stories cast. I know this story is suppose to revolve mostly around Taro, but I really like Zero too, so I decided to throw him in at the last minute. Sorry that Taro isn't in this chapter, he'll be in the next one though. PLEASE REVIEW!(Even if, you think it stinks) But, if you do, please be gentle about it.


	19. Chapter 19

Seven and Ultraman, quickly moved Zero from the debris, being careful not to further injure him. They laid him on the floor, with Ultra mother rushing to his aid. Ultraman stepped back to give her room, but Seven stayed by his sons side, while an expression of pain crossed his face. He eyes moved up and down his son's body, and Seven almost wanted to yell in anger. He was unconscious, with second degree burns covering nearly his whole body. There were a couple of deeper ones that looked almost like gashes on his chest, and Seven could only imagine how painful they were. One of his eye sluggers was a little bent and his color timer had a small crack in it. It was blinking red, of course.

Seven moved one hand and placed it on his son's shoulder, but quickly withdrew it when Zero flinched in pain at the slight pressure. Seven looked at Ultra mother, who was at Zeros other side, and said with a heavy voice, "I..I think his shoulders broken."

Ultra mother went to examine his shoulder and nodded in agreement, before saying, "He must have fractured it when he fell."

"Is he going to be alright?," Ultraman inquired.

"I'm not sure yet," she responded, while feeling Zeros chest for further breaks. "His condition is quite severe. He has multiple second and third degree burns, and several possible cracked ribs. The contusions on his chest and abdominal section could indicate internal bleeding, which could be very serious, if not immediately treated."

"Can you help him?," Seven asked in an almost pleading voice.

"I'll do all I can, seven. But, if he's to make a full recovery, he must be transported to the trauma center immediately. I'll need help getting him there."

"Seven, you go with her," Ultrafather said, who had stayed silent this whole time. "Everyone else must remain available."

Seven gave a nod of gratitude, as he and ultra mother placed Zero on a gurney and took him to the trauma center, which was right by headquarters. Everyone else then quickly began to organize their plan of attack, which the planet was in great need of.

On board the Twilohite ship:

"What is our next line strategy, General Sarek? the young commander asked, standing to the side of their leader. "Do we continue to take out the anterior of the planet?"

"Proceed to the surface!" the general ordered.

"Sir…?" the commander asked, confused at the order.

"Begin sending soldiers down to the planet's surface!" he shouted louder.

"But, sir-?!"

"If we want to successfully take out their planets power source, or in this case their source of life, then we have to draw their attention towards something else. So will you stop standing there, wasting precious time, and send out our armed man forces?! Now!," the general shouted in rage as the commander did what he was told.

Within seconds the ships opened up there hatches, and began sending out hundreds of black armored soldier drones. All on gliders and armed not just with ninja swords, but powerful leaser guns, which were set to kill. They all lowered themselves closer to the planet's surface and randomly began attacking innocent Ultras. Every single Ultraman who had had combat experience engaged them in battle. Some Ultras fired their specium rays at the enemy from the ground while others fought with them in midair. Some of the Twilohites were knocked right of their gliders, causing them to fall to the ground. But those who did hardly seemed stunned at all by it. Most of them landed neatly on their feet and began pulling out their swords, proceeding with their duty. Which at this point was to annihilate every living being who wasn't a Twilohite.

Even with the skills of both sides, the fight seemed to be equally damaging to both. Though, no Ultras had been killed, many were injured and the same went for the Twilohites. But even with all the casualties, it was obvious that neither side was ever going to give up, until one or the other was dead. And if someone didn't stop it soon, that was the way it was going to end up.

Mebius and Hikari, had both at some point joined the fight, and were rather successful in taking out over a dozen of the enemy, who you could now say were out of commission. But even though they put up a good fight, they still sustained various injuries. Mebius had painfully dislocated his left shoulder, causing him to be unable to fight with his whole left arm, and Hikari was slashed across his lower abdomen with a ninja sword, which could cause him to go into shock if the bleeding wasn't controlled. They still gave it all they had to protect themselves and planet, but they both knew that they weren't going to last much longer.

As the Ultramen and Twilohites continued to battle each other from every corner, the main Twilohite ship made it's move towards the plasma spark tower, which gave the whole planet life. From all the tension between both sides on the surface, no one, not even the Twilohite soldiers, noticed the large craft closing in on the tower. Ignoring the fierceness of the apparent war below, the Twilohite general gazed up and down the great tower from inside the ship.

"So that's where all their power originates," he stated smugly, sounding very unimpressed. "Take us over to it's side and prepare to open up the bridges hatch! If anyone's going to have the pleasure of killing this planet it's going to be me."

To what seemed like ages, Taro, Ace and Xena after three hours, finally managed to reach their destination. Luckily, Xena was able to obtain a flying devise without much trouble, since they couldn't afford any delays. It also made their trip easier.

Now, once they made their way through the travel portal, they found themselves hovering over the glowing planet M78. But before they could even catch their breath from the long trip, they all gasped in shock at the first thing they laid eyes on, which they regretfully assumed was the Land of Light. They froze at the sight, and Taro could almost feel his heart stop. He knew that the Twilohites had been disturbed by Xena's capture, but he never expected this. The whole planet of M78(his home) looked completely consumed in an angry mob of war ships, which were obviously the Twilohites. They were no doubt laying waste to the city at this very moment. Their recent mission of preventing such a suicidal war, now seemed hopeless. They were too late. There was no stopping it now. The guilt that began to weigh down on Taro from all the innocent lives who were bound to suffer, he could sware, was worst than anything else he had ever felt. He just couldn't shake the thought that he caused all this to happen.

Taro looked down, shamefully, as he murmured barely above a whisper, "This is all my fault."


	20. Chapter 20

"This is all my fault."

"What?" Ace and Xena both asked simultaneously.

"This is all my fault!," Taro exclaimed a bit louder than before, " If it wasn't for me, none of this mess would of happened!"

"What are you talking about?" Xena asked without much sympathy.

"Yeah, Taro, how can you possibly blame this on yourself?" Ace interjected.

"If, I hadn't made the stupid decision to take Xena back with us to M78 in the first place, this never would of happened!" Taro shot back, his voice on the verge of anger. "If only I had taken more responsibility for my actions and thought it through first, then just maybe…,"Taro trailed off, unable to continue, with the grief that was weighing him down.

There was a moment of awkward silence, before Ace regretfully stated," Well, Taro…if any of this is your fault, it's mine too." This caused Taro to look up at his brother , who now wore the same mournful expression. "I was in charge of that mission, and if anything went wrong I was to accept full responsibility. So if anyone is to blame for this, it's me!"

Unable to look his brother in the eye any longer, Taro shamefully turned away, before admitting out loud, "I guess we both failed."

Meanwhile, Xena had both hands placed on her hips and stared incredulously at the two, not believing what she was actually hearing. Once bringing herself back to her senses, she persistently hovered in front of a distorted Taro and with great agility, swatted him in the face with the front of her hand. This immediately brought Taro back to reality and gave him a shock at the same time.

"What was that for?!," Taro asked confused while bringing his hand up to the sore side of his face.

"Never mind that, what's the matter with you guys?! she shouted looking back and forth between them." Your just giving up?!" Neither Taro or Ace responded, since they weren't sure how to. "Aren't you guys suppose to be the best warriors in the whole universe, or something? Well, if so, you certainly don't look it. Here we are, in the presence of a world in the process of being devoured, and your just giving in, without a fight! So, stop wallowing in self pity, and let's try to do something about it!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. It only took mere seconds for her message to sink in.

"She's right!" Taro, shouted boldly, "We can't just give up. There may still be a way to put an end to this, and if there is we have to at least try!"

Ace gave a nod of agreement and equal determination, before turning his firm gaze to the planet below. "Then there's no time to lose."

"Let's go!" Taro shouted before zooming down to the world they hope to save, with Ace and Xena quickly following.

General Sarek and a group of his black armored soldiers, once dislodging their ship, manually transported themselves to the outside wall of the plasma spark tower. While using highly equipped rope wires and hook mechanisms, they were easily able to attach themselves to the outside of the tower, and lowered down until they were able to swing themselves into a large window opening. Once quickly unhooking themselves, they all brought out their weapons, and prepared to shoot anything that moved. But not a soul was in sight.

They then all proceeded through the strange sizable tower at a quick, but stealthy pace, with General Sarek taking the lead of course. Upon making their way through several corridors, they finally came to the substantially large area of the plasma spark itself. Many of them froze in astonishment at the site. The light was like nothing they had ever seen. General Sarek was the only one who was unfazed by its appearance. So without another word he fearlessly made his way down the long walkway. His men; however, stayed where they were, unsure of their superiors intentions.

Upon reaching a good three feet from the glowing sphere, Sarek stood and evaluated his next move. After staring at it for a good thirty seconds, he made the sudden action of withdrawing a heavy looking leaser gun from the holster on his back. Quickly cocking it, he held it up, aiming at the plasma spark, and prepared to fire. Whither shooting the core of it would even destroy it, he was unsure, but he figured even if it didn't, he would die trying. He was just about to pull the trigger when he heard shouting from behind, where his men were.

"Yeah, what do you think your doing?!" the firm voice demanded.

Without lowering his weapon, Sarek angrily clenched his teeth in mere frustration. He quickly turned his whole body to face whoever it was, while pointing his gun straight ahead, ready to fire. He, along with all his soldiers, turned to see two Ultramen standing bravely with their eyes fixed on the enemy.

"Back away from there!," said the one with the round meddles circling his chest.

The enemy responded by cocking their own weapons and prepared to fire.

"Zoffy, look out!" Ultraman warned, pushing his commander out of the line of fire. Ultraman, however; was unable to avoid them in time, with a couple of the leasers hitting him in his side and shoulder.

"Niisan!" Zoffy shouted in horror, seeing his brother tumble to the floor.

Being momentarily sidetracked, Zoffy didn't notice one of the Twilohite soldiers coming up behind him. He realized it too late, when he was suddenly hit on the back of the head with the butt of a gun. He grasped the back of his neck as he doubled forward in pain, falling on his hands and knees. The same soldier again took his gun, and brought it down hard in between Zoffys shoulders blades, knocking him bluntly to the floor. While in obvious pain, Zoffy still managed to lift himself up enough to look right at his attacker, knowing that at this time he was completely at his mercy.

The soldier turned his gun around, pointing it's end at Zoffy, and was about to fire when he was startled by a sudden booming voice.

"Enough!"

All heads quickly turned to the voice containing authority.

"Hold your fire at once!"

"Ultra Father…" Ultraman said hoarsely, while attempting to lift himself up, but failing.

"I am Ultra Father, head of the space garrison, and I command you all to withdraw!" he demanded with anger evident in his tone.

Taking their attention away from Zoffy and Ultraman, they quickly aimed their gun point at the new Ultra. Ultra Father, who was completely unfazed by their action, stood as firm as a rock and awaited their next move. General Sarek was somewhat impressed by this brave act, but didn't dare show it. Instead he gave out an unexpected order .

"Hold your fire!"

The soldiers were obviously surprised by the order, as some of them actually turned their gaze away from ultra father and towards the general, in confusion. Sarek ignored their suspicious looks and walked straight towards Ultra Father, who still hadn't moved from his current stance. He stopped as they were about several yards apart. Their eyes bored into each other's with a look of pure hatred and rivalry. A strange silence surrounded them as they were finally face to face. At this time the Twilohite soldiers withdrew and merely observed the scene before them.

After several more moments of silence, the general took a sudden step forward and then said in a slow threatening voice, "Where..is she?"

A look of confusion then crossed Ultra Fathers face. But, before he had a chance to ask who "she" was, Sarrek hissed, "Where's my daughter?!"

Author note: Sorry, I'm taking so long to update, but I just started school, so of course I need to devote most of my time to that. So I hope you'll all continue being patient with me. Thanks for reading, and God bless you!


	21. Chapter 21

"Where's my daughter?!"

After, a second of stunned silence, realization finally struck Ultra Father. There was only one logical choice for who he could possibly be talking about. The one who must have been the cause for this whole uprising. Suddenly, Ultra Father got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, when he came to the conclusion that this whole thing was "their" fault! They caused this, not the Twilohites!

When all this suddenly dawned on him, Ultra father was at loss for words, and possibly for the first time in forever, didn't know what to say. His facial expression of fierceness fell, and was replaced by one of serious thought.

Sarak, noticed the sudden mood change in his rival, and took it as an immediate sign that he did, in fact, know the whereabouts of his daughter. This, only seemed to further enrage him.

"So, you do know why we've come!" it wasn't a question. "You may see "us" as savages, but in our eyes "you" are!" after drawing in a sharp breath he continued, "You started this war, but we intend to finish it!" he then lifted his leaser gun, aiming at Ultra Father.

"Wait!" Ultra Father shouted, lifting up a hand motioning for him to stop. "Listen to me! There is no need for any of this!"

Giving an irritable grunt, Sarak said, in an almost mocking tone, "No need?"he then slightly lowers his aim. "There's "no need" to defend ourselves, our home, or our children, from…from you whoremongers?!"

Ultra Father was slightly taken aback by such an insult, but quickly recovered. "Listen to me, your daughter, she's-," he was then abruptly cut off by the general.

"Shut up! You don't even have the right to speak of my daughter. You've undoubtedly slaughtered her,…and I shall see to it that her blood is avenged! Even if it means the obliteration of this whole world!" he then lowers his voice to a hoarse whisper, "You will pay for what you've done."

Then without hesitation or warning, Sarak again, took aim with his gun, which was set to kill, and fired at him. Ultra Father gasped in surprise, but barely had the time to react due to its immense speed. Now, just as the death ray was about to make contact with its unprepared target, a voice of protest was immediately heard. "No!"was shouted at the exact moment, someone had jumped up, knocking Ultra Father out of fire rage. They were both sent barreling to the ground from the hard impact of the leaser striking the isolated wall where Ultra Father would have been.

After hitting the floor along with whoever had just shoved him out of the way, Ultra Father quickly looked to his side, trying to see who it had been. He couldn't tell at first because of all the dust and smoke in the air, but after a second it cleared enough so that he could make out who it was. Once he did, he choked out a shocked gasp, before saying his name, "Taro…?"

Taro, began to lift up himself, and gave a light moan, while placing a hand to the side of his now throbbing head, since it hit the floor. Thinking he heard his father say his name, he tried to respond, "Father?"

That was all Ultra Father needed to hear! Without taking a moment longer to think, he got up on one knee, and instinctively grabbed his son by the shoulders and pulled him into a tight hug. This sudden action took Taro by surprise, and caused him to suck in a breath, since he almost couldn't breathe. But, that didn't stop Taro from hugging his father back, since he was just as equally happy to see him. But, their reunion was short lived when a certain party began to interject.

"Enjoy your family moment while you can, because it's the last one you will ever have!" Sarak stated harshly while preparing to fire again, without the slightest intention of missing.

The two Ultras quickly released each other out of their embrace and stood up. Ultra Father attempting to protect his son from further harm, stood in front of him. He then held a hand out to his side, motioning for him to stay back. But Taro, not willing to be shielded by his father, brushed past him and stood forward.

"Stop! You don't have to do this!"

"Shut up!" Sarak shouted back.

"No! There's no reason for any of this!"

Sarak growled at that, before shooting back with, "Fools! I said, I'd get vengeance for my daughter, Xena! And, nothing will stand in my way. Nothing!"

Taro, froze at the Generals' statement, before saying, "Xena, is your daughter?"

"Yes, and your people killed her without reason! Now, you will all suffer the consequences!"

"No, listen to me! I'm the one who took your daughter!"

"Taro!" Ultra Father said, knowing what his son was doing.

"This is all my fault, so you can do whatever you want with me, but leave my people alone. I'm the one to blame, " Taro spoke sternly, unafraid of what was about to befall him.

Sarak remained silent, while processing what this Ultraman had just confessed. But, after a moment the general narrowed his one eye in Taro's direction, before saying coldly, "Then so be it." He then quickly cocked his gun and prepared to shoot. Ultra Father of course protested, but everything seemed oblivious to Sarak, except for the one person who he assumed was his daughters murderer. Nothing else in the world could have stopped him from pulling the trigger in that very moment…. except for a certain familiar voice.

"Father, don't!"

Sarak, froze on the spot, not believing what he heard to be true. Before he made up his mind whether to turn and look or not, the owner of the voice saved him the trouble, and approached him from the side. He then lowered his weapon in utter shock and confusion, as he could immediately tell who it was.

"Xena…is that really you," his voice became softer now, as he faced his daughter, "But, how? I thought that they had…"

"Yeah, well you were wrong!" her voice was filled with spite. "Just look at what you've done,…and for what?!"

"But-!"

"No! Now, it's my time to talk! And you are going to listen!" she quickly snapped.

Everyone else remained silent. No one had even seemed to take notice of Ace, who had just caught up with the others and was now standing by Taro. It was evident that Xena had wanted to have this talk for a long time.

"All my life I wanted to make you proud of me,…to show that I could be as good a warrior as you someday. But, were you supportive and encouraging, like a father should have been? Not at all! After mother died, the first chance you got, you shipped me off to a military academy, were they pounded me into becoming the soldier I am today!...And now, looking at you , I realize what a fool I was, for wanting nothing more in life than your "approval." Which, I never got!" she paused a moment trying to straighten out her thoughts, and began again. "So tell me,…" she started, crossing her arms and looking her father straight in the eye, "how come after all this time, of you seeing me as if I didn't even exist,…and now , suddenly you send all of Twiloh into an uproar, and attack a peaceful planet, as a result of my mere pitiful disappearance? I was nothing to you before, aren't I still nothing?!"

Sarak, didn't know what to say at first and for a split second wore a look of regret. But, it was short lived, and his face was now just as hard as ever. He stared at Xena with anger evident in his eye, before quickly stepping forward and hitting her flat across the face with a great deal of force. This took everyone by surprise, everyone; however, except Xena, who managed to keep a straight face and looked as if she had been expecting it.

"How dare you take that tone with me!," he breathed heavily. "It is not your place to question my motives, nor is it for you to show, such disrespect for your commanding officer, and father I might add! Do you understand me?!"

When Xena didn't make the slightest attempt to respond and deliberately avoided his stare, he growled in fury, grabbing her by the hair (causing her to give a quick gasp) and lifted his armor plated hand, in order to pound some sense into her.

"Stop!" Taro shouted, grabbing sarak's his arm and punching him in the face, making him let go of Xena. Taro, then quickly stepped protectively in front of her, which earned a couple of confused looks from the other Twilohites present. "I won't let you hurt her again!"

That statement rather surprised Xena, but she was grateful none the less.

"She's none of your concern!" Sarak snapped.

"Well, I'm making her my concern, so why don't you just back off!"

Just about this time, commander Zoffy, and Ultraman had partly recovered from their previous injuries, and were now standing off on the sidelines, trying to put together what was happening.

"What exactly is going on here?" Ultraman asked, clearly confused at the complicated scene before them.

"I don't know, but we better try to get in touch with the other Ultra brothers, and tell to get here quick, before anything else happens," Zoffy then looked to see that one of the entrances was clear and turned to ultraman. " Let's go that way."

"Alright, through all this confusion no one will probably even notice."

While these two were making their getaway, general Sarak was getting impatient. He was about to continue his argument with Taro, when he noticed Xena placing a hand on Taros upper arm, (probably trying to give him confidence). When Taro glanced at her in recognition, making no attempt to remove her, it suddenly dawned on Sarak that their connection to one another was obviously more than what he had previously thought. This sudden realization, just seemed to put him over the edge.

"So that's it?!" he asked looking at the both of them in disgust. "You wish to rather betray your own people, so you can be shamefully joined with this…this..subspecies!"

Taro, at first looked confused, not sure what he meant by that. Then looking down at Xena, and seeing her shocked expression at her father's words, it quickly dawned on him, and he probably would have blushed if it wasn't such a serious situation. Once, concealing his embarrassment, he was about to object to what sarak was insinuating, when Xena shocked him by making a sudden confession.

"Yes! …Yes, I would much rather be inter joined with a member of the Ultra race, then keep my ridiculous loyalty, to an incriminating barbaric society, such as Twiloh! That place I once called home, means nothing to me, now that I can see it's true colors! All it is, is a bloody battle field wanting nothing but war, and that's all it ever has been, because of leaders like you! I was just too blind to see it, until now!"

"Foolish girl! I should-" Saraks outrage was cut off by Xena.

"No! I am not the fool here,…you are!"

"Me?! I-."

"Yes, and if you had any sense, would put an end to this fight between our two colonies, which you so pointlessly started!"

Sarak, remained silent as if thinking about what she just said.

Just then, Ultraman, Zoffy, Jack, seven, and Zero!, who had just made a miraculous recovery, (thanks to Ultra Mother) burst into the large corridor of the plasma spark tower! Zoffy, who was in front, boldly shouted, "Everyone lower your weapons!"

"No! Stand your ground!" Sarak shouted to his men.

The twelve twilohite soldiers, who were present, looked at each other for a moment, trying to decide what to do, since they were realizing that what Xena had said made a lot of sense.

Xena, immediately noticed their struggle within themselves, and took the chance to try to convince them to do the right thing, since she knew that her father was a hopeless case.

"The decision you make could affect the rest of your lives,…"she paused a moment to watch their expressions, "be sure it's the right one. Do you choose war, or peace."

After looking among themselves and then at all the Ultras who were lined up readying to fire their beams, they finally slowly began to lower their weapons, before dropping them straight to the ground.

"No, you fools!" Sarak shouted, who was still tightly clutching his heavy gun.

The Ultras had collected all the Twilohites guns, and were now leading most them out the door, along with Xena who was very eager to get to the others and tell them to stop the fight. She was on her way out with the others when she suddenly stopped to look back at her father, who she had almost forgotten about. She saw him standing there with his gun in hand looking straight ahead at someone, but it wasn't her. Just then she noticed Taro and a few other Ultras coming towards him. One was Taro's father and the other two she didn't know who they were, but one had these two sharp things on his head, and the other had just one. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she figured it was something about his gun, since she could see him glancing at it. She was surprised to see him just hand over his weapon to Taro's father without a fight. But, that, of course, was something he would never do, so she quickly became suspicious of his actions. She decided to closely watch him for awhile.

As Ultra Father, Zero and Seven, were walking back to the others, Taro stayed a moment longer, perhaps to smooth things out with Sarak.

"I hope you'll choose to do the right thing."

Sarak merely shrugged with a grunt, not even bothering to look at him. Taro, gave a low sigh as he turned and began to walk away from him. Sarak looked up as he watched the ultra depart, and as he reached for something strapped on to his upper leg, he whispered to himself, "I choose war!"

Xena, gasped as she saw her father pull out a long machete knife, and was preparing to hurl it straight at Taro! Who, unfortunately, had his back to him. And she knew it wasn't going to miss him!

"Taro, look out!" she yelled as loud as she could, as she made her way to Taro.

All heads turned to the sound of the warning, but since it all happened so fast, no one had a chance to react in time.

Taro, had turned around just as Xena lunged herself at him, grabbing his shoulders, and shielding his body with her own. Before he knew what happened, the machete knife, which was aimed at him, had swiftly impaled itself right into Xenas back. Xena immediately dug her nails painfully into Taros shoulders, while letting out an agonized gasp.

"Xena!" Taro shouted, horrified. He had instinctively grabbed both her upper arms, as to support her to him. Taro, looked to the general with anger burning in his eyes. "You! You did this to her!"

Before, Sarak could give any sort of reaction, Zero, who had witnessed the whole scene, quickly without second thought, seized both his eye sluggers and hurled them, simultaneously, at the clearly insane Twilohite. Sarak barely saw them coming, before they had slashed up his body several different ways at lightning speed. Sarak stood, completely stunned for a moment, just before giving a long yell, and blowing up in a heap of fire and smoke. Zero, then caught both his eye sluggers, before placing them back on his head. Zero, probably would have said something arrogant, but chose against it, when he saw a sorrowful scene beginning to unfold.

Taro held Xena's almost lifeless body, tightly up against his chest, as he painfully watched a tear beginning to roll down her face. As she faintly looked him in the eyes, he could sense her beginning to slip away. As she could no longer support any of her own weight, Taro slowly lowered her partly to the floor, but being careful not to lay her down completely flat because of the knife still in her back. As he continued to hold her dying form in his arms, he was totally oblivious to everyone else present. He hadn't even noticed when his brother Ace left to get a medic.

"Taro…" Xena weakly spoke between her labored breathes. She slowly started lifting up her hand, which Taro anxiously took, and accidently squeezed a bit too hard.

Taro sucked in a breath as he tried to hold back tears. But, It seemed futile as he could feel his eyes beginning to water. He saw Xena attempting to lift up her head towards him, which caused him to lower his. He gently leaned his forehead against hers.

Using her last breath, Xena whispered her last words so that only he could hear then.

'"I love you…" just then her eyes slowly closed, and her grip on Taros hand went suddenly limp.

At that moment Taro felt completely lost. The tears had already started to come, and all he could do was hold on to Xenas lifeless body, as if that would bring her back. But, he knew that she was gone.

Pretty soon after, the medics came and immediately took Xena to an emergency room, though they could tell her chances of survival were very few, due to her severe blood loss. Taro, stayed behind, though, not wanting to have to be told again that she was dead.

While, being around the other Ultra brothers, Taro tried his best to hide his grief, but he knew they could all see right through his anterior. But, none of them said anything about it, which Taro was grateful for. They figured that he was already taking everything to hard, and they didn't want to make it any worse. Especially, Ace, since he knew firsthand what Taro had been through in the last twenty-four hours.

After a short meeting with a few of the Twilohite combat leaders, they and the Ultra Brothers quickly came to the conclusion that this whole thing was a misunderstanding. A major case of rash overreacting, on the part of their forming superior commander, general Sarak. Who they all agreed was a war crazed mad man.

Peace negotiations went on for about an hour, before they all came to a controversial agreement. Ultra Father officially apologized for intruding on their planets desired privacy, which was obvious due to their cloaking device. This led to the Twilohites doing the same, considering all the damage they caused to M78.

Once, both sides agreed on peace between their worlds, the Twilohites returned to their home, hoping to find a more just military leader, than Sarak.

After everything had been cleared up, Ultra mother went to see Taro to give him an update on Xena.

Taro was in his room, sitting on his bed, just trying to piece together everything that had happened. He sat there for a good thirty minutes, before he heard a faint knock on the door. He waited a minute before getting up to answer it, figuring that it was probably more bad news.

Once he finally answered the door, he saw that it was his mother, and let her in, before sitting back on the edge of his bed. He was trying to brace himself for whatever it was she was about to say. She cautiously sat next to him and was uncomfortably silent for a moment, which instantly indicated that she had something unpleasant to tell him.

So, without even looking at her, he glumly began to ask, "Is she..?"

After giving a long sigh, she placed a comforting hand on his upper arm, which he flinched at , before responding, " Well,..the knife had punctured a vital organ within her chest cavity, which led to internal bleeding. Through surgery we were able to stop the bleeding, but…she immediately went into hypovolemic shock, which we weren't able to stop and now…"

"And, now what?" he said looking at her, dreading what the answer would be.

"I'm afraid she's gone into a deep coma,…and we're not sure if she'll ever come out of it."

Taro slowly turned away ,while processing what he had just heard, before burying his face in his hands.

Ultra Mother almost felt her heart begin to break, from seeing her son in such distress. She felt so terrible, knowing that there was nothing she could do to comfort him. Suddenly her motherly instinct kicked in and she placed both her arms around her son, and pulled him against her chest, hugging him as if he was still a child.

Taro was grateful for her support, since he just couldn't bare to be alone right now.

Time just seemed to slip by, day after day, and Xena still hadn't woken up. Three long months had past, and Taro was still struggling with his depression. But, he never even would have made it this long, if it wasn't for his Father, Mother and brother, who continued to stand firmly by him. He tried his best to move on with his life. Being able to teach the children again seemed to help take his mind off things.

Every week , though, he would visit Xena, hoping that something would change and that she would wake up. But every week he went, he left disappointed.

Until, one day when something different happened.

Taro had just finished training the children, and he was in his office getting ready to leave for the day, when Ace urgently came rushing in.

"Taro!"

"Ace, what's wrong?" Taro asked confused.

"It's Xena! You have to come now!"

Taro, immediately dropped what he was doing, and quickly went with Ace to the hospital.

Once they got to Xena's room, Taro anxiously went right in, while Ace stopped to talk to a nurse. He slowly walked up her to the side of her bed, and tried to search her for any sign of movement , which at first there was none. After waiting a couple of minutes and noticing nothing different, he sadly turned around and began to head for the door. Then suddenly he heard a faint noise, which sounded like a moan. He instantly stopped and turned around. Xena slowly began to turn her head in his direction, and a second later her eyes began to open. Taro had almost forgotten how blue her eyes were.

"Taro?"

"Xena!" he said rushing to her side.

She became more lively every second as she quickly sat up and looked around the hospital room. She looked to Taro confused.

"What..What happened?"

Being overwhelmed with joy Taro couldn't even answer her. Before Xena knew what was going on, Taro had bent down, planted both hands on the sides of her face, and firmly pressed his mouth to hers in a passionate kiss. After getting over the surprise , Xena slowly relaxed and rapped both arms around his neck.

It was at this time that Ace walked back into the room.

"Oh-uh, sorry!..I uh guess I'll come back later," he said awkwardly, immediately leaving. But strangely neither of them even noticed.

Once, Xena had made a complete recovery , she decided now that her father was dead, that she should go back to Twiloh. She was eventually promoted to general in her fathers place, and was a much better one than he was. She was sorry about leaving Taro, knowing that she would always miss him, but she promised to visit him every year, around the same time when they first met. Taro continued with his life, and looked forward to her first visit in twelve months from now. And she kept her promise!

Author Note: I hope you've all enjoyed this story, and thank you for reading!


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